West of Hell (2018)

 

 

Richard Riehle who is known as one of the biggest character actors of the past thirty years with over two hundred films to his credit is the conductor of a train that is not your usual train.  On board is Tony Todd who we know of course as the Candyman and is Jericho Whitfield here.  Also on board is Michael Eklund (The Call and Mr. Right) as Roland.  Jeryl Prescott is Desdemona.  In a super-secret “I can’t tell you who he’s playing” role is Lance Henricksen where whenever he is on screen the movie instantly becomes better.  Unfortunately, he is not in the film very much.  The train, inside and out, looks very good, I mean it looks like a train from the late 1800s.  The costuming is done well also and some of the effects look better than expected. 

 

 

The problem is this film has several scenes where it is just loaded with dialogue but no action.  Not only that but they are scenes where nothing is done to progress the story.  Some good bloody scenes and a decent scare here and there does help in spots but it reminds me of a weed whacker I used to dig out of my shed every spring.  It would start up after about a half hour of working on it and then it would work for a little while, maybe get two lawn cuttings out of it and then die.  New spark plug and we’re good to go for another outing or two.  Then the string would run out and I’d have to respool it and holy shit what a torturous experience it was to use.  That’s sort of what it’s like watching West of Hell.  There’s two or three minutes of a pretty good horror film and then ten minutes of boring dialogue that goes nowhere. 

 

 

I think the two downfalls the movie has is a shoestring budget and a director who was stretched too thin.  I mean Michael Steves directed but he also co-wrote the script and edited the film as well.  That’s a lot for a guy who doesn’t have much experience doing any of it.  Especially the editing.  It looks like it was edited with a machete used by a guy riding in a bulldozer.  Todd and Prescott have some good scenes or at least moments in scenes and whenever Henriksen is on the screen he demands attention as usual, but it doesn’t fit together well at all.  Sadly.  I’ll give West of Hell two midnight trains to Georgia out of five.  I’m almost offended due to the fact that this should have been better.