Le pentacle maudit

Ghost Town did have a good idea to start with. With the opening sequence, which sets the tone very well, you'd think it would be a decent movie at least. Unfortunately, it very quickly descends into amateurish tedium. I have seen worse-looking movies, but the crude editing, often dull lighting and the rather slapdash(though I have seen far worse) effects does make it a film where the low-budget really does show. Even the make-up has a real lack of originality. The music is too obvious, a large part of why the scares and such weren't done so well, and nothing really stuck out as memorable. The dialogue is terrible, it all feels hackneyed and it gives a very unnatural flow. The story is one that tries to be a slasher movie, a western and a ghost movie. It doesn't do either of those well at all. Much of it is worthless filler. With slasher scenes, you'd expect scares that make you bite your nails and a feeling of dread. With these scenes, it has gore but little else. I like westerns just as much as the next person, but there is nothing exciting or adventurous on display here. Likewise with the ghost aspects. The ghosts had real potential but are not menacing and not used well. It all reads of them giving nothing to do that is worthwhile other than predictable things, and as a result the spooky atmosphere is low on the radar. Even episodes of Scooby Doo was scarier than this entire movie. And when are SyFy ever are going to do their research, the worst was in regard to Wicca, which didn't exist until the 20th century which is the opposite of what Ghost Town implies. I hated the characters just as much. Whether they are stereotypical or not doesn't actually doesn't bother me, a large amount of movies has one stereotype at least. But it is an entirely different matter when the high school kids are so annoying that you'd finish them off given the choice and no thought whatsoever is given to the villains, with only the character Reb Halland given anything that is of note. The acting is atrocious, the kids can't act their way out of a paper bag, most of them are wooden, with one even slipping into what sounds like a New Zealand accent that is somewhat disconcerting, and none of them show any genuine sense of fear or tension giving their predicament. Billy Drago looks intimidating but has little to do other than sneering reasonably effectively. All in all, Ghost Town had an opening sequence that was decent but any potential was wasted to the point that you actually question what was the point? 2/10 Bethany Cox

Busload of annoyingly stereotypical teens, stranded in a ghost town inhabited by murderous outlaw poltergeists, attempt to survive their stay without "freaking out" while also solving the mystery behind their spooky surroundings. Jittery, witless low-budget thriller, barren of substantial ideas or honest scares. TV-buffs should enjoy seeing Gil Gerard again (playing the preacher), but the movie doesn't have an ounce of originality. The poor bus driver throws up motor oil in the most ludicrously-derived supernatural sequence (actually a quasi-steal from "Poltergeist II"), while the long-in-the-tooth students banter back and forth so vacuously that one is apt to sleep through "Ghost Town" without so much as a shudder. NO STARS from ****

I happened to catch a portion of this movie on the Sy-Fy channel about a year ago and, since it looked pretty good at the time, I decided to procure a copy recently. Having now seen this movie in its entirety I can honestly say that it wasn't too bad. Essentially, "Reb Halland" (Billy Drago) is the leader of an outlaw gang back in the days of the old west who has made a deal with the Devil for immortality. "Preacher McCready" (Gil Gerard) is a mystic who comes to the town of Hope Springs to protect it from Reb Halland's gang by erecting 5 Wiccan totems in various places. His plan works to perfection until a man comes along and pulls one out of the ground. When that happens, all hell breaks loose as Reb's gang kills everyone in town-on a Friday the 13th no less. They then commit suicide and wait for an opportunity to kill again. Fast forward to the present when a bus carrying students from Carmel College find themselves in this same town-and it just happens to be on a Friday the 13th. Now rather than reveal any more of the film and risk ruining it for those who haven't seen it, I will just say that for a made-for-television movie it had decent special effects and enough suspense to keep things somewhat interesting for the most part. Likewise, it didn't hurt to have two attractive actresses in Jessica Rose (as "Jenna") and Annabelle Wallis ("Serena"). Again, while it certainly wasn't the best horror movie ever made, I found it to be enjoyable enough and I rate it as about average.

Well there is 85mins of my life that I will never get back. This really is the worst film I have ever seen (and I've seen Dragon Wars). Don't know why films like this get made. One of the "ghosts" from 1866 uses a box of safety matches to do some dirty work - very safety conscious them 1866 cowboys. Billy Drago is lookin sad and old these days and his scary persona has all but vanished in this one with the scary having to come from some (not so) special effects. All the kids are deeply annoying without a touch of acting ability between them and the set seems to be made from old food boxes - Avoid wasting a night of your life on this one NO STARS

A bus load of college students & staff end up in an Old West ghost town inhabited by the wicked specters of outlaws. Will anyone survive?

Released to TV in 2009, "Ghost Town" is part Old West Western and part modern horror, mostly the latter. It's similar to 1999's "Purgatory" in that they're both TV Westerns with supernatural elements, except this one is decidedly horror-oriented. The "hip" youths hanging out in an abandoned Western town is reminiscent of the biker flick "Angels Hard as They Come" (1971). The difference here being that this group is trapped and fending off wicked apparitions.

I liked how the group dwindles down to little more than a handful and they have to rise to the challenge of surviving or dying. Joey Ansah stands out as Bonesera, aka "Bone," a bully football player who may or may not redeem himself. It's also nice to see Gil Gerard ("Buck Rogers") again in a peripheral role.

As for the female cast, the movie scores pretty well: Israeli Shelly Varod (Katie) looks like she has a smidgen of Far East Asian in her. She's cute, but I prefer Annabelle Wallis (Serena), Jessica Rose (Chloe) and even the outlaw babe (Cvetelina Teneva), looks-wise anyway.

As long as you can handle the limitations of low-budget productions, like the other two flicks noted above, I give this a marginal recommendation.

The film runs 1 hour, 25 minutes and was shot in Old Tucson, Arizona.

GRADE: C+/B-