Dead in Tombstone

Bite-Sized Review

My search to find a good supernatural horror/western mashup continues. This time the search has lead me to the 2013 direct-to-DVD release Dead in Tombstone. Much like GallowWalkers, Dead in Tombstone had some very appealing elements that drew me to check out the feature: it features Mickey Rourke as the Devil and it also stars Danny Trejo as a man who makes a deal with the Devil to return from the dead to take revenge on the men who betrayed and murdered him. Whereas Gallowwalkers introduced several interesting-sounding elements and breezed through the movie without much in the way of satisfactory explanations of said elements, Dead in Tombstone has a relatively simple formula – the deceased making a bargain to come back from the grave to exact vengeance – but doesn’t take advantage of the potential for over-the-top fun.

Brief Plot Synopsis: Dead in Tombstone has a clever opening credits sequence in which the members of the Blackwater Gang are introduced to us by way of their Wanted posters. The opening scene has gang member Red Cavanaugh (Anthony Michael Hall, another draw to this film) at the gallows awaiting execution. The rest of the Blackwater Gang, lead by Guerrero De La Cruz (Danny Trejo) enter the scene guns blazing in order to rescue Red. After the rescue, Red tells the gang of a great score waiting for the taking – the score that could set them up for the rest of their lives. He notes that the town of Edendale sits on some lucrative mines and that the bank is holding a small fortune in gold that is currently in dispute. The robbery goes smoothly but the sheriff and his men engage the gang in a shootout which leaves the sheriff dead. Red, emboldened by the victory, goes against Guerrero’s “get in, get out” philosophy and decides that the gang should run the town. When Guerrero opposes, Red and the gang gun him down.

Guerrero finds himself in the presence of Old Scratch and pleads for his soul, offering to bring down each of his former Blackwater Gang members within 24 hours in exchange for Guerrero being allowed to go free. The Devil finally agrees and sends him back exactly one year after his death. Under Red’s control, Edendale has been renamed Tombstone. The town folk certainly aren’t happy with their leaders but are powerless to overthrow Red and his men. If only a mysterious hero would help liberate them! Guerrero manages to sneak his way around town for a while, building up an arsenal to take out his former colleagues. He even manages to gain the support of the town’s priest and the former sheriff’s widow (Dina Meyer, yet another draw to this film). After several skirmishes Guerrero manages to pick off his killers, leading to a final showdown with Red. After Red is finally killed Guerrero finds himself back in the Devil’s presence. Guerrero notes that he was able to hold up his end of the bargain but the old sly Devil notes that he was a few minutes over his 24 hour ultimatum and therefore Guerrero’s soul was still doomed. HOWEVER, the Devil, having grown fond of his little assassin, sends Guerrero back to Earth to keep doing his dirty work “until all the bad guys in the west are dead.”

Summary: If the above synopsis doesn’t sound that bad that’s because the ideas themselves weren’t that bad. This one suffers from poor execution which I found to be primarily due to bad editing. Many of the scenes suffered from extraneous dialogue but, worse that that, there are overlong pauses at the end of scenes where you are ready for the next scene to start but the current scene just hangs in the air. Those awkward pauses affect the pacing of the movie and make you aware of just how long the script is taking to get out of the setup phase. Dead in Tombstone could have easily trimmed 10-15 minutes out of the script, still retained all of the key scenes, and perhaps would have made the pace fast enough to instill some of the sense of fun that should have been evident with all of the appealing elements of story and cast. I was hoping for something akin to Machete in the old west but this didn’t make the cut.

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