Gallowwalkers (2012) - 2.5/4

Gallowwalkers is a new entry in the relatively rare subgenre of the horror-western. The film's real attraction to most will be the star, Wesley Snipes. Perhaps expecting a westernized version of Blade, some viewers will be disappointed. But for those with broader expectations, Gallowwalkers is something new, something strange, ambitious, a truly inventive spectacle.

The horror-western is very difficult to pull off for several reasons. One is that horror really needs to feel immediate and threatening, whereas westerns are set in a past that is increasingly distant. Ghosttown and House II, for instance, get around the problem by having undead gunslingers appear in the present. These films end up being more goofy than anything else. Andrew Goth, who wrote and directed Gallowwalkers has a much more creative idea: invent an entirely new fantasy world. It's a much more difficulty strategy to work, but he pulls it off.

The world of Gallowwalkers is a sort of alternate-reality American old west. There are references to being in America, but this is no America I know. This is an America populated by creepy, long-haired blond men who can't grow beards and prostitutes in push-up bodices. We never really see where they live, but it's somewhere in the desert. Also in the desert are some mountains where the Sisters of San Diablo keep the gates of hell shut. Mercifully, Goth never takes the time to explain any of this. He shows enough for you to know this is an alternate universe and its inhabitants are so familiar with it, they don't waste their time explaining it. Why would they?

Unfortunately for Wesley Snipes, the Eastwood-esque nameless gunslinger whose story this is, the Sisters of San Diablo are falling down on the job. A cadre of rapists he already killed has come back from the dead and these undead jerks are wreaking havoc on all the albino ladyboys, stealing their skins and such. Snipes decides they have to go back to hell where they belong. Therein lies the minimalist plot.

Gallowwalkers relies less on plot and more on a mystical atmosphere comprised of Leone-esque longshots, close-ups, and sparse, bleached-wood sets. Closer to El Topo than to Blade, the film is bound to alienate and frustrate some viewers. I found the film beautiful in its Zen elegance, and fun in its outburts of violence and undisguised borrowings from Once Upon a Time in the West.

Certainly there are some flaws to be found. The mythos of the titular 'gallowwalkers,' once explained, loses a great deal of its urgency and is clearly much smaller a problem than originally presented. There are also several continuity issues. While Goth tends to make liberal use of elipsis, there are times when a character has plainly just transcended time and space. For instance, Patrick Bergen's character is on the gallows at one moment, then in a shoot-out in the next. The film's geography, because so abstract, is always difficult to pinpoint. These continuity errors make it patently disorienting.

Nevertheless, Gallowwalkers has something that has become an increasingly rare commodity: originality. This is something different. It isn't great, but it's new. A horror-fantasy-western that takes itself seriously. Certainly more difficult to enjoy than the latest remake of an '80s slasher, but also worth the effort. Check it out.