Desperadoes! Gideon Brood in the Weird, Wild West!

Written by Jeff Mariotte (of Graveslinger fame) and drawn by various artists, the Desperadoes Omnibus is a gorgeous presentation. Published by IDW, someone forgot to tell them how Omnibuses are supposed to look (mostly newsprint with black and white images) because this is full colored and glossy paper'd...yet priced at about the same as the less stellar versions.

The book collects every Desperadoes story that has been published thus far, about 5 mini series', and clocks in at 492 pages; Well worth the price Amazon is selling it for. This book should cost two to three times as much.

Desperadoes is the continuing story of Gideon Brood and his band as they travel and adventure throughout the Weird West tracking down killers and trying to stay out of trouble. Here is what Amazon has to say about it:

Over the course of its decade-plus lifespan, the Western/horror series Desperadoes has traveled some long, strange trails. Since its hard-riding heroes first met while tracking a ritualistic murderer whose crimes gave him supernatural powers, they've experienced quarantine in a haunted town, a reanimated dead boy with a thirst for revenge, a spiritualist's nightmare, and a bizarre quest to the birthplace of the buffalo on behalf of Geronimo himself. For the first time ever, the Desperadoes Omnibus brings all the published Desperadoes stories together in one place, teaming the series' creator, award-winning, bestselling novelist Jeff Mariotte, with a veritable galaxy of superstar artists, new and established. John Cassaday (Astonishing X-Men) became a household name working on the first five-issue run, while John Severin (Bat Lash) made a triumphant return to comics after a long absence with this. John Lucas, Jeremy Haun, and Alberto Dose earned national attention and acclaim from their runs. Saddle up and hang onto the reins, because once you start in on this ride, you won't want to stop!

If you get a chance you should pick this up. The book is thick, and the stories are well worth getting lost in, a very satisfying read.

So they were......Vampires?

Corbin Bernsen is a captured Confederate officer, during the Civil War, whose men have suddenly become supernaturally endowed. They have been traveling around killing Union Soldiers and crucifying them. So Adrian Pasdar releases him from prison so he can help track the renegades down and stop them. At least that's what I think the story was, the audio on the DVD was so bad I could barely hear what was going on....and of course there were no subtitles...

The film starts off strong with a creepy, effective title sequence. The camera pans around actual Civil War photographs of wounded and deformed soldiers. Then the film goes to a make shift medical facility where soldiers are having bullets removed and legs sawed off, in all sorts of bloody, gruesome realness.....Very cool! There was even a pretty interesting cameo by Martin Sheen...but then the film takes a bit of a nose dive as it starts to think that it is more intriguing than it actually is and begins to show its sloppiness; Ham-handed acting, weird situations, and a gross out factor that kinda bothered me...example, a character gets doused with a bucket of urine, ugh.

...and then the problems begin as the supernatural Confederate soldiers appear. But its completely unclear what they are exactly. They can't be shot, or stabbed, and after they've been turned into whatever they are, they wear this white tribal makeup.....(I'm pretty sure it has something to do with Voodoo). For most of the film, as I'm watching it, I'm thinking, "are they Zombies? Are they just ghosts or something?" (One of the titles of the film was Ghost Brigade) but I couldn't tell since they didn't look or act like anything I'm familiar with....Then at one point near the end, one of the Soldiers cuts the throat of a character and drinks her blood....and I thought "That's weird why did he do that"......well, as it turns out, and I didn't actually find this out until I watched the special features, they were supposed to be....Vampires.....ok....

After I found this out, it felt a little like an artsy reinterpretation of vampires, and it fails miserably.

The acting was alright, with Adrian Pasdar's Union Soldier probably being the most interesting character. But the story and filming were sub par, and the complete mishandling of the films main creatures (or total lack thereof) made this film somewhat of a boring uninspired viewing experience.

I could seriously write more about Grey Knight, there is more story to be told, but I was so bored by it, and I'm so not interesting in writing a review of it that story points will have to come from viewing it, which I should warn you, you do at your own risk...

This film gets 1 out of 5 Bloody Spurs

More Werewolves in the Old West!!

Written by Matt Maxwell, Strangeways: Murder Moon is the story of Werewolves in the Old West. As a tease, a Flickr page has been set up to showcase a lot of the art work!

Huzzah!

But if that isn't enough well, Pard, Take a look at the first chapter right here

Epic FAIL!

I'll admit right off the bat that this isn't a review, I wasn't even able to finish this film. Really slow, bad acting, incompetent writing, bad production values, poorly filmed....this really had a lot going against it. Jack Elam, the headliner of the film, first name in the credits and the name ABOVE the title on the poster.....is in the film for about two minutes...ugh, such a disappointment. Not that I was holding out any hopes for a good film, but maybe something that was a little entertaining. Its really hard to find good Weird Western films. For some reason, the Weird West works really well in other mediums, but on film there are so few good films worth watching.

I dont blame this one for its low production values, or small budget. Bravo for getting it made (In fact Jack Elam's appearance was probably why it got made, since the rest of the cast are total unknowns)...but boo on it for the shoddy film making and poor acting.

And the Sound design! ugh! Talk about generic!

I'm sorry, but this film gets 0 Bloody Spurs...

Bison Bill's Weird West Show

Bison Bill's Weird West Show is a site dedicated to the strangeness of the Old West. While it doesn't quite go into the Supernatural that this sight does, it is still occupied by Western eccentricities, such as The Terror of Tiny Town, featuring Jed Buell's midgets! Also, the gruesome hanging and bad death of Black Jack Ketchum.....Pictures and all!

Now Bison Bill hasn't posted anything in a while (almost a year and a half) but what he has on the site now, as you will see, is as he claims: All Things Western: Funny, Fanciful, Fictional, & Factual and is certainly worth a little time of exploration.

With Single Minded Purpose They Come....

Uninvited is a film that I only heard about recently, and after seeing the trailer, I think that it will either be really good or really bad. I'm not convinced that the "Ghost Indian" effect is very scary, but the scares could be more story related....the cast looks to be inhabited by eccentric, interesting characters which is always (in my opinion) a plus for any Western. As soon as I've seen this I'll write a full review.

Until then here is a taste....and major kudos go to the fact that the always awesome Jack Elam stars, and Mr. Peter Cullen (Optimus Prime himself) narrates the trailer!

Enjoy...

Gallowwalker reshoots in May

Gallowwalker just got a whole lot more exciting! Not only with the news that they had re-shoots last month (which means the film is still a "go" and caused the production company to scramble around and re-collect all the props, costumes, and sets that had been auctioned off after the end of principle photography).....but also with this comes even MORE exciting news:

They are thinking that Gallowwalker is going to be a Trilogy!

I know this sounds like a strange thing for me to be excited about, especially for film Ive never seen, and may truly hate after I see it (though It looks like a LOT of fun, so probably not)....A trilogy keeps Weird Westerns alive, that's one thing...also, a trilogy of films that are in a genre I love is always a plus....Plus PLUS this film looks like it is very adaptable to a long or episodic story format, being the adventures of a wandering Gunslinger...never in one place too long, but always being followed by his curse...that whoever he kills comes back to life.

They could even do a Sequel/Prequel trilogy like they did for From Dusk Til Dawn and Underworld, which seems likely (one film about the further adventures of Aman and the other about how this whole thing got started).

But the bottom line is, a trilogy keeps the Westerns/Weird Westerns coming, they keep the Genre alive, and that is always a big plus....especially if its a fun film series.

You can read all about the re-shoots and prop scramble here, and a little blurb about the Trilogy at the end.