The other night my mate really wanted to watch a Western, but I insisted on watching a horror film. What do you do in that sort of situations? You search for a compromise and choose to watch a horror-western. Now, experience already taught me that these genre amalgamations are usually very substandard. "Ghost Riders" definitely confirms this unwritten rule. This obscure and righteously forgotten late 80's flick is indescribably dull, derivative and gore-free. The plot, as you can undoubtedly guess from the title, revolves on the vengeful return of an outlaw posse in ghostly format. In the late 1800's, they were lynched by an angry mob and now they are back to extract revenge on the descendants. I wish I got a nickel for each time I wrote this synopsis down in a user comment! I'd be rich by now! The ghost riders can only be killed with an antique shotgun that lies hidden underneath the bed of one of the descendants, but he lies half dead in an old cemetery throughout half of the movie. The screenplay is full of dull and completely irrelevant dialogs as well as completely gratuitous padding footage. There's even an extended scene following the hunting method of a spider that caught a mosquito in her net! If I wanted to see that, I would have switched to the National Geographic channel. There's absolutely no gore or gruesome make-up effects, since the ghosts use guns, and their costumes look like cheap leftovers from a thrift store. The only good thing I can write about "Ghost Riders" is that it caused me to have Johnny Cash's awesome song "Ghost Riders in the Sky" stuck in my head for several days already now. I suggest you listen to that on You Tube instead of seeking out this film.
10 Reviews
If Ed Wood had a larger budget he could have made this film.
Melllvar2 February 2001
I was disappointed in this movie.I found this movie on a discount shelf and bought it looking for a good "bad" movie. what I found was a bad "bad" movie. The plot was your basic "ghost seeks revenge on family of man who killed him",but it was never quite clear then,why the family wasn't wiped out years ago. Many of the scenes really had nothing to do with the plot and several of the final scenes appeared to be influenced by Night of the Living Dead though not as well executed.The outlaws were not very convincing and Bill Shaw, in the roles of the preacher and his grandson, was not very effective. The sound quality was bad in spots,but that could just have been on my tape.In any case it meant I didn't have to listen to the poor delivery of some really bad dialog.
I can't recommend this film.I gave it a 2 only because it wasn't as bad as Kazaam.
I can't recommend this film.I gave it a 2 only because it wasn't as bad as Kazaam.
Interesting... It's worth the watch if western horrors peak your interest
sidhtownsend28 October 2019
I'd like to tell you you'd be entertained, but I can't promise anything. I watched not knowing what to expect, and I finished not knowing what I just watched. I was entertained at points in the film, but not necessarily by the plot or action. The concept was worthwhile, but I wouldn't say the same for the execution.
Clumsy But Not Without Its Interests
Steve_Nyland20 June 2007
I have to admit that I am fascinated by the concept of crossing the Western with horror movie elements and while this may not be the best example there are some pretty compelling movies out there existing as Horror Western hybrids: CURSE OF DEMON MOUNTAIN, THE STRANGER'S GUNDOWN, HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER, the notorious CUT THROATS NINE, good old GRIM PRAIRIE TALES and Charles Band's GHOST TOWN are amongst the best I can name off the top of my head.
GHOST RIDERS is another Prism Video release of yet another ultra low budget regional horror affair, along with THE FOREST and SATAN'S BLADE, seemingly inept more or less direct to video efforts by young filmmakers starting out who simply didn't have the budget or talent to really score an EVIL DEAD like classic. This one was made in and around Waco, Texas, and concerns itself with a bunch of ideas copped from just as many sources. From HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER (via STRANGER'S GUNDOWN) we get the idea of gunfighters returning from the grave to avenge their somewhat unjust killings, though imported from Euro Horrors like HORROR RISES FROM THE TOMB the targets of their wrath are the present day descendants of those who executed them, and finally a NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD type ending.
Toss in a smattering of teen horror themes and a slightly unstable Vietnam vet who didn't find time to change out of his camouflage fatigues & walks around packing a nickel-plated .45 and we have the makings of 85 minutes of dreck that actually isn't as bad as the average ratings here reflect. The plot concerns an elder researcher who stumbles across the story of a mass execution 100 years before that sent a gang of crooks to their tombs with a vow to avenge themselves. At more or less the same time a group of young misfits embarks on an excursion to find the old cemetery to find the resting place of their relatives who find themselves pursued by a posse of cowboys who pick them off one by one, eventually leading to a NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD like climax where the survivors barricade themselves into a ranch house and try to fight them off.
There are some decent moments of gunslinger gore, a nice explosion or two, and a pretty young leading lady who doesn't shirk at the idea of stripping down to her undies for a dip in the ole' swimmin hole. One of the misfits is a Vietnam vet and helps to guide the youngsters to relative safety, and there is some not so subtle commentary on 1980s youth culture fixations like the Walkman craze and the idiotic fashions that we appallingly wore back then. None of it really amounts to anything though, and after a protracted ending showdown the movie just sort of ends -- which isn't necessarily a bad thing, though none of it is hardly memorable.
One curious aspect of the film regards this undead cowboy posse, who are not shown as "ghosts" or zombies or even some kind of spectral presence like Clint Eastwood's Preacher from PALE RIDER, but are reborn as actual cowboys who can be shot & killed all over again. While probably owing more to the production's limited budget than to a directorial choice, the decision to depict them as such sort of defeats the purpose of having them be undead gunslingers in the first place. Why have a movie about ghost cowboys and not have them be actual ghosts? Until the very ending of course, when it is convenient for the plot.
The one thing I did like about the film is it's totally ordinary look. None of the scenery or interiors looks particularly cinematic or out of the ordinary run of experience for most viewers. It looks like any old river running down any old stretch of rural Texas, and the characters don't wear costumes so much as whatever clothes they had onhand: Even the cowboys seem to be wearing Levis jeans and work shirts rather than "authentic" Western gear, so I can see how some viewers may be disappointed that the film doesn't have the filmic look of something like THE EVIL DEAD. It's all plain and ordinary but that's Waco for you, I guess, and the video is still another rare example of an attempt to blend Western themes with an outright horror movie setting (or the other way around, maybe) and I kind of like that.
5/10
GHOST RIDERS is another Prism Video release of yet another ultra low budget regional horror affair, along with THE FOREST and SATAN'S BLADE, seemingly inept more or less direct to video efforts by young filmmakers starting out who simply didn't have the budget or talent to really score an EVIL DEAD like classic. This one was made in and around Waco, Texas, and concerns itself with a bunch of ideas copped from just as many sources. From HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER (via STRANGER'S GUNDOWN) we get the idea of gunfighters returning from the grave to avenge their somewhat unjust killings, though imported from Euro Horrors like HORROR RISES FROM THE TOMB the targets of their wrath are the present day descendants of those who executed them, and finally a NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD type ending.
Toss in a smattering of teen horror themes and a slightly unstable Vietnam vet who didn't find time to change out of his camouflage fatigues & walks around packing a nickel-plated .45 and we have the makings of 85 minutes of dreck that actually isn't as bad as the average ratings here reflect. The plot concerns an elder researcher who stumbles across the story of a mass execution 100 years before that sent a gang of crooks to their tombs with a vow to avenge themselves. At more or less the same time a group of young misfits embarks on an excursion to find the old cemetery to find the resting place of their relatives who find themselves pursued by a posse of cowboys who pick them off one by one, eventually leading to a NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD like climax where the survivors barricade themselves into a ranch house and try to fight them off.
There are some decent moments of gunslinger gore, a nice explosion or two, and a pretty young leading lady who doesn't shirk at the idea of stripping down to her undies for a dip in the ole' swimmin hole. One of the misfits is a Vietnam vet and helps to guide the youngsters to relative safety, and there is some not so subtle commentary on 1980s youth culture fixations like the Walkman craze and the idiotic fashions that we appallingly wore back then. None of it really amounts to anything though, and after a protracted ending showdown the movie just sort of ends -- which isn't necessarily a bad thing, though none of it is hardly memorable.
One curious aspect of the film regards this undead cowboy posse, who are not shown as "ghosts" or zombies or even some kind of spectral presence like Clint Eastwood's Preacher from PALE RIDER, but are reborn as actual cowboys who can be shot & killed all over again. While probably owing more to the production's limited budget than to a directorial choice, the decision to depict them as such sort of defeats the purpose of having them be undead gunslingers in the first place. Why have a movie about ghost cowboys and not have them be actual ghosts? Until the very ending of course, when it is convenient for the plot.
The one thing I did like about the film is it's totally ordinary look. None of the scenery or interiors looks particularly cinematic or out of the ordinary run of experience for most viewers. It looks like any old river running down any old stretch of rural Texas, and the characters don't wear costumes so much as whatever clothes they had onhand: Even the cowboys seem to be wearing Levis jeans and work shirts rather than "authentic" Western gear, so I can see how some viewers may be disappointed that the film doesn't have the filmic look of something like THE EVIL DEAD. It's all plain and ordinary but that's Waco for you, I guess, and the video is still another rare example of an attempt to blend Western themes with an outright horror movie setting (or the other way around, maybe) and I kind of like that.
5/10
Avoid this junk!
mjshannon18 October 2000
To keep it short just avoid this movie. The premise of an old west killer putting a curse on the preacher of a lynch mob that subsequently haunts the family for generations may sound promising but in delivery it simply fails. After moving from 1886 Texas we join a Professor of Texan history in 1986, who happens to be the great-great grandson of the hangin' preacher. His son(a Vietnam vet and stunt pilot) is coming for a visit with his two mechanic buddies and a young lass who is smitten with him in about as much time as it takes to say "this movie sucks". Now the idea of old outlaw ghosts seeking bloody revenge should have been good for a few chills but the majority of this no budget affair takes place on a sunny blue skied day, which certainly takes away much of the fear of not knowing where the spectres are coming from! Add to this lame mix bland to just plain bad acting, generally annoying characters, a simplistic, non suspenseful and amateurish script, horrible sound quality and a limp pay off and you have a text book example of a time waster. Avoid this movie. It had potential but simply blew it!
Anemic horror/western underachievement.
EyeAskance14 August 2011
A band of old west outlaws rise from the grave to exact vengeance against the descendants of those responsible for lynching their top-dog 100 years earlier.
While there is little to complain about as far as technical aptitude is concerned, GHOSTRIDERS is far from a rewarding or memorable film-watching experience. There is a smidgen of suspense buildup within the final fifteen minutes, but that certainly doesn't make this otiose Hee-Haw of Horror the slightest bit recommendable.
Give me just a wee bit of bloodshed...maybe some boobs. Hell, give me ONE boob, just something, ANYTHING to make this all seem like more than just a goddamn waste of time. There was a fairly workable idea here, but somehow it took the form of this nothing-flavored mephitis of a motion picture...no scares, no gratuitous ANYTHING...not even an unintentional chuckle(besides the one that comes after you've finished watching it).
3.5/10
While there is little to complain about as far as technical aptitude is concerned, GHOSTRIDERS is far from a rewarding or memorable film-watching experience. There is a smidgen of suspense buildup within the final fifteen minutes, but that certainly doesn't make this otiose Hee-Haw of Horror the slightest bit recommendable.
Give me just a wee bit of bloodshed...maybe some boobs. Hell, give me ONE boob, just something, ANYTHING to make this all seem like more than just a goddamn waste of time. There was a fairly workable idea here, but somehow it took the form of this nothing-flavored mephitis of a motion picture...no scares, no gratuitous ANYTHING...not even an unintentional chuckle(besides the one that comes after you've finished watching it).
3.5/10
Ghost Riders
BandSAboutMovies20 February 2022
Warning: Spoilers
Reverend Thadeous Sutton (Bill Shaw) and citizens have gathered for the hanging of Frank Clements, who curses the preacher and all of his family before he dies. A century later, that curse -- and the undead gang -- continue to haunt the preacher's grandson and his family. And when it comes to bad hombres who can't be killed again, things look pretty rough.
Directed by Alan Stewart from a script by Clay McBride (who wrote Look Who's Toxic, another movie Stewart was involved on) and James Desmarais, this film pits a Vietnam vet, a woman interested in the history of the Clements outlaws and the professor who is the grandson -- also played by Shaw -- of the preacher from the opening of the film.
Shot on the Western set and using cowboy actors from Texas Safari Ranch in Clifton, Texas, it's kind of weird that the bad guys look nothing like the cover and are killed with normal bullets, but hey -- it's a low budget regional horror movie that somehow got a video release and then was brought back for today's boutique video rediscovery market.
The actual blu ray is great, with extensive commentary that shows how a movie like this could be made and make money. The extra features are way more interesting than the actual film and allow me to recommend this, as there's a lot of great information within this release.
Directed by Alan Stewart from a script by Clay McBride (who wrote Look Who's Toxic, another movie Stewart was involved on) and James Desmarais, this film pits a Vietnam vet, a woman interested in the history of the Clements outlaws and the professor who is the grandson -- also played by Shaw -- of the preacher from the opening of the film.
Shot on the Western set and using cowboy actors from Texas Safari Ranch in Clifton, Texas, it's kind of weird that the bad guys look nothing like the cover and are killed with normal bullets, but hey -- it's a low budget regional horror movie that somehow got a video release and then was brought back for today's boutique video rediscovery market.
The actual blu ray is great, with extensive commentary that shows how a movie like this could be made and make money. The extra features are way more interesting than the actual film and allow me to recommend this, as there's a lot of great information within this release.
Strange movie
bookitnow939 September 2014
This was a very strange movie and I'm not sure if the genre horror can accurately describe it. It is a mix between horror, action, western, romance, and drama. That mix doesn't work. It's not scary, there isn't much action, it's barely a western, the romance is very slight, and the drama isn't very dramatic.
The plot of the movie is that an outlaw and his gang who were executed in the late 1800's rise from the dead 100 years later. They want to kill the current generation of the preacher who had them executed.
The VHS cover made it seem like the outlaws would be skeleton ghosts on horses when they rise from the dead, but they weren't. They looked the same way they did before they died and they never say anything as ghosts. They were silent and non-scary. I'm not surprised that this movie never made it to DVD or Blu-ray.
The plot of the movie is that an outlaw and his gang who were executed in the late 1800's rise from the dead 100 years later. They want to kill the current generation of the preacher who had them executed.
The VHS cover made it seem like the outlaws would be skeleton ghosts on horses when they rise from the dead, but they weren't. They looked the same way they did before they died and they never say anything as ghosts. They were silent and non-scary. I'm not surprised that this movie never made it to DVD or Blu-ray.
Fairly fun though minor regional horror/western
Bloodwank17 September 2010
What is it with these micro budget regional horrors that makes 'em so indefinably compelling? To me at least, the territories located a few left turns and a lot of country road away from standard issue teen slaughter fare can be remarkably interesting places, or at least a good deal of fun and Ghost Riders is no exception. It has one of those "sins of the father shall be visited upon the son" type set ups, here the sin in question is a vigilante hanging perpetrated by a priest on evil wild west era scuzzball Frank Clement, who naturally returns to life a hundred years later for a bit of the ole gun blazing vengeance, along with a few cronies. In the firing line are Jim and Hampton Sutton, descendants of the earlier hanging priest, a couple of Hampton's buddies and of course a pretty and easily led young lass researching Texan history. Now before you start to wonder, this one doesn't go down the zombie cowboys or even ghost cowboys route, these baddies are pretty much just flesh and blood types, they don't even have period garb. They do fire guns and act capably menacing though, and so the second half of the film is somewhat exciting in a low rent kind of way, as our protagonists are hunted by impassively deadly foes. What the film never attains though is fear or wonderment, it is in fact barely a horror film at all, whilst despite its western theme this one could just as well have say, drug dealers as the baddies and aside from the clumsy final moments it would make little difference. So you might wonder who this is aimed at, and outside of those who will watch anything, it's a little hard to tell. I had a pretty fun time though, it's a film that scores by its very mundanity. The central characters are all relatable types, well maybe not Hampton, him being a slightly troubled Vietnam veteran, but he is still likable. Meanwhile Ricky Long does typical early twenties type OK and even looks to be around that age, while Arland Bishop plays the token idiot of the piece without being too irritating. The ordinariness, the way the characters get along, it ends up being a fair amount more sympathetic than a lot of 80's junk and hence the more fun in the second half when the action really gets going. The film may open with a fun cheap western shootout but the first half is pretty typical scene setting "suspense" building stuff. Cool shots of a spider snacking, I could have done with more like that. More walking around, stock footage padding and whatnot, though the scenery is nice I would have liked something a bit more off key. This probably just stems from having watched The Prey too many times though
Anyhoo, I don't exactly recommend this one, but if you have a lot of time on your hands you could do far worse. Worth around a 5.5 for 80's junk-hounds, rounded up to a 6 for IMDb.
The western dead.
HumanoidOfFlesh12 August 2010
"Ghost Riders" involves the ghosts of notorious Texas outlaw Frank Clements and his bloodthirsty gang,who return every 100 years as gunslinging ghouls to exact bloody revenge against the ancestors of the preacher who had them strung up in 1886.A Vietnam vet plus some teenagers are stalked by these ghostly cowboys.Fairly enjoyable horror western which owes a lot to "The Evil Dead" and "Rio Bravo".The acting is stiff and there is only a little bit of gore with some nasty looking gunshot wounds.Thankfully the action almost never lets up and the film is entertaining from start to finish.If you liked "Ghost Town" or "The Shadow of Chikara" give this one a chance.7 ghostly cowboys out of 10.
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