GALLOWWALKERS (2013) **

I have an affinity for horror-western hybrids.  This one certainly had promise.  I mean the prospect of a horror-western starring Wesley Snipes as a cowboy who scours the west gunning down the titular monsters, undead frontier killers who wear the skin of their victims, sounds like a good time.  

It also blatantly steals from spaghetti westerns of the past.  From the weird camera angles to the Morricone-inspired music cues, the film nicely captures that old time feel.  It looks better than your typical Direct to Video actioner, that’s for sure.

Gallowwalkers is odd, uneven, but not altogether uninteresting.  Imagine if Blade went to the Wild West and that might give you an idea of what we’re dealing with.  I’m not saying it’s nearly as good as Blade was, it’s just nice seeing Snipes in a horror setting again.  You wish he was given more to do than ride around the prairie and look grim, but at least there’s enough weirdness here to prevent it from being just another western.

Unfortunately, the mythology revolving around the gallowwalkers themselves is a bit muddy.  “No one knows why” they returned from the dead, which is a bit of a cop-out if you ask me.  At least the film is a lot gorier than expected and there’s plenty of odd moments revolving around skinning people that help to make it memorable.  (In one scene, a henchman begs the main gallowwalker to let him sew on a woman’s lips.)

All of this is more or less entertaining; at least for an hour or so.  Too bad it gets more drab and confusing as it goes along.  The needless flashbacks and clunky narration that try to hold it all together adds to the perplexing narrative.  In fact, they pulled a Steven Seagal on us as they used a guy that sounds like Snipes (but isn’t) as the narrator.  

I guess they had to do what they can.  This film was made right when Snipes was having his legal troubles.  Given the circumstances, I can’t exactly fault them for using a voice double.

The villain gets the best line of the movie when he grabs a preacher and says, “Forgive me, Lord, for I have skinned!”