Gallowwalkers (2012)

Number Rolled: 63

Movie Name/Year: Gallowwalkers (2012)

Tagline: Live by the gun. Die by the gun. Come back for more.

Genre: Western Horror

Length: 92 minutes

Rating: R

Production Companies: Boundless Pictures, Jack Bowyer Productions

Producer: Alex Avant, Jack Bowyer, Brandon Burrows, Roger Alan Grad, David Higginson, Guy Nockels, Courtney Lauren Penn, Ken Ross, David Schiff

Director: Andrew Goth

Writer: Andrew Goth, Joanne Reay

Actors: Wesley Snipes, Kevin Howarth, Riley Smith, Tanit Phoenix Copley, Simona Roman, Steven Elder, Jay Grant, Hector Hugo, David De Beer, Alyssa Pridham, Dallas Page, Derek Griffiths, Alex Avant, Jenny Gago, Tommy Van der Nest, Arthur Berezin, Jack Bowyer, Frederick Haraseb, Shani Maritz, Vicky Moller-Forbes, Sean Naude, Villo Vilonel

Blurb from Netflix: A mysterious gunman inherits a curse that ensures each of his victims will come back to life as a member of the undead in this zombie western.

Selina’s Point of View:

I had a lot of fun this week telling people what movie I was going to be watching. The look on people’s faces when I told them I was going to be watching a western zombie film starring Wesley Snipes (Chi-Raq, The Player, Brooklyn’s Finest), was priceless. My husband and my best friend both stuttered when I described it. There were many giggles.

Of course, there’s a minor issue.

I hate westerns. I hate the pacing. I hate the tropes. I HATE westerns.

I don’t even really like the settings of westerns unless it’s something like Blazing Saddles (1974), which is more of a comedy than anything else, or Django Unchained (2012), which is more of an action film than anything else.

Gallowwalkers is supposed to be a horror/western. It was more western than horror and had all the tropes I despise. It had the worst of recipes. I didn’t even like the kind of zombies they used, and we all know I love zombie flicks so much that I tend to even like the bad ones.

I spent the majority of the movie more interested in where I recognized Riley Smith (Bleed, Nashville, True Blood) from than the actual story.

There was a certain brutality to Gallowwalkers, however, that reminded me of the Machete (2010) series. So if you like that kind of B-movie violence and you enjoy westerns, this film might amuse you.

It was definitely not for me.

Cat’s Point of View:

When this movie first came to my attention on Netflix, I was intrigued. I generally like westerns. I generally like zombie movies. I like Wesley Snipes (The Contractor, 7 Second, Blade), usually. A zombie-western featuring Snipes as the lead? Sign me up!

One word: Ugh.

I wanted to like this. I really did. It fell far short of the kickass expectations I had, unfortunately.

Frankly, I was bored out of my mind watching it.

The concept of the curse that applies to the main character is somewhat interesting. Fans of gore will see a good amount. It wasn’t gratuitous – for which I am immensely grateful. It just felt disjointed and like it couldn’t decide whether to be a western-horror or a bleak art film.

Too many fancy slow motion shots, and even a few random camera pans that made no sense whatsoever, were a couple of the issues I had. The pace of this movie is also super slow. This doesn’t have nearly the level of “action” that one would expect from a Snipes project.

I was tickled, though, when I found Dallas Page (Vengeance, What Now, The Bet) in the credits as Skullbucket. Wrestling fans from the 90’s and early 2000’s might be more familiar with the monikers of “Diamond” Dallas Page or DDP. He’s no stranger to the horror genre. He even had a role in The Devil's Rejects (2005). Unfortunately, due to character makeup, he’s not really recognizable in the movie.

I’ll leave you with a bit of trivia. The narration voice-overs throughout the movie sound like Wesley Snipes, but aren’t actually him. The production had to find a sound-alike artist to record those parts, due to the fact that it was during the time period that Snipes was going through the beginnings of his legal woes stemming from tax evasion. He was filming this movie when he was indicted.

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – None

Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 11%

Netflix’s Prediction for Selina – 3/5

Selina’s Trust-the-Dice Score – 1.5/5

Netflix’s Prediction for Cat – 1/5

Cat’s Trust-the-Dice Score – 1.5/5

Movie Trailer: