West of Hell (2018) Reviews

• An abysmal horror western...

  paul_haakonsen2018-07-05

  I must admit that I had somewhat more of an anticipation for the movie, given the fact that it has both Tony Todd and Michael Eklund on the cast list. And the fact that it is a horror movie wrapped up in a western attire, just made it all seem all the more interesting. But alas, that was not to be. I managed to endure 45 minutes of the ordeal that is known as "West of Hell" before I gave up out of utter hopelessness and boredom. Actually, the movie had drained all energy away from me and I was starting to fall asleep as well. Yep, the movie was that boring. Nothing of any worth or interest happened in the movie. The characters were one-dimensional cardboard cutouts with an equal amount of personality as a mosquito. And that made it a complete snoozefest to sit through and be tormented by watching. Not even Tony Todd or Michael Eklund could do anything to lift up the abysmal display of pointlessness that transpired on the screen. I have no intention of returning to watch the rest of the movie, because there was nothing, and I do mean that literally, to keep me interested, not in the story, not in the characters, not in whatever plot was unfolding with the shapeshifter. One might actually be tempted to hope that the train the movie took place on would derail or crash, and ending the misery of the movie that is "West of Hell".

• its a tank engine pulling a story

  ops-525352018-07-05

  Oh, what can i say without spoiling anything. well i'm not overexcited,though the propmakers have done their job, the story could have been written on a paper napkin, the yellow glow staight through the movie, could make you think its a gold rush movie, but its all about revenge and avenge between the good the bad the ugly and the devil and so on made as haunting as my empty wallet. there are no new angels of filmmaking to find in this feature , and as long as the movie consists of two or three locations, it bears all the signs of low budget.....i cant give less than 2 stars for this chattanooga choo choo tale

• Fantastic for What it Is

  stitchedwicked2018-11-26

  Let me just say that I loved this movie. I knew going into it that it was't going to be a well funded SFX nightmare. As a matter of fact, I had to change my perspective of it 5 minutes into it. I realized that it was more like a stage play. Once I realized that, I really got into it. You had a lot of angry and hurt people stuck on a train together. They had to set the tone immediately and they did. They established the atmosphere the old fashioned way with lighting and ominous foreshadowing. They did an excellent job developing the characters. You understood where they were coming from and what was ahead. It was worth the purchase and I have no regrets. My nieces loved it too. They're 12 and they said it reminds them of a ghost story. It reminded me so much of a few productions I've seen over the years. If you like films that aren't all about SFX and that focus on character development then this is a good one. I highly recommend viewing it for what it is. I can't fairly review this based on blockbuster standards. It's not that type of film.

• Horror on the Western Express

  TheLittleSongbird2018-10-15

  'West of Hell' did actually intrigue me. It did have a great idea, it was interesting to see how western and horror would go together, and it had a capable cast on paper, Tony Todd, Lance Henriksen and Michael Eklund having given more than serviceable performances in the past (Todd in 'Candyman' is a notable example). So there was not any intent or prejudiced want to dislike it. After seeing it, it is actually really quite sad that the potential that 'West of Hell' had was wasted by very lousy, and that's being kind, execution. How badly it executes a great idea is just shocking and one would not think that the cast showed themselves to be more than capable in other things judging from their performances here. Are there worse films? Oh yes, 'West of Hell' is not even quite one of the worst films seen recently, it is though one of the worst and most frustrating wastes of potential. Having seen a lot of those recently, part of me of debilitated by this. Eklund is the least bad thing about 'West of Hell', he at least tries without being pantomimic and doesn't look like he was only doing it for financial reasons. Cannot say the same for the rest of the cast, Todd tries too hard and the over-acting does become painfully desperate and Henriksen is merely phoning it in (he has come off reasonably well in stinkers before, and he has been in a lot, but not this time). The rest of the cast are not worth mentioning, mainly because most are completely forgettable but those that aren't quite so much are that for reasons that are not good. In all fairness, everybody is saddled with one dimensional archetypes that have no depth or shade to them whatsoever, cliché-ridden and barely coherently structured script writing and barely existent direction to work from, but that they don't act quite plays as big part too. Visually, 'West of Hell' looks cheap with far from authentic settings and photography and editing that looks very static and disorganised. It works neither as a horror or a western. The horror elements are too predictable and the scares and shocks go through the motions just as much as Henrilsen does, with no tension, suspense or dread in sight. One never doubts the outcomes, what could have been reasonably creative is so ordinarily handled. It fails as a western because there are no thrills, interesting characters, excitement and there is too much emphasis on the horror element. Summing, awful. 1/10 Bethany Cox

• To slow

  brentgray732019-05-02

  I could only make it 20 minutes into the movie...to slow...need something.......anything