GALLOWWALKERS (2012)

Studio:       Lionsgate
Director:    Andrew Goth
Writer:       Joanne Reay, Andrew Goth
Producer:  Jack Bowyer, Courteny Lauren Penn, Brandon Burrows
Stars:     Wesley Snipes, Kevin Howarth, Riley Smith, Tanit Phoenix, Simona Brhlikova, Steven Elder, Patrick Bergin, Diamond Dallas Page, Jenny Gago

Review Score: 

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Summary:

A cursed outlaw recruits a new gunman to aid in the fight against creatures that return from the dead after being killed by his bullets. 

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

According to legend, a sacred sisterhood guards a portal between Heaven and Hell that lies somewhere beneath a mountain range. The power of their prayers keeps the damned from tormenting the living.

Cursed gunman Aman delivers a body to a desolate ranch where he cuts off his victim’s head with an axe. Meanwhile, a child watches the event from hiding beneath the floorboards. A flashback shows that the decapitated man once belonged to a band of rapists.

Elsewhere in the desert, a trio of men in crimson robes meets with a man named Slip Knot. The men realize that Aman is watching them from behind a gallows tree. Another flashback shows Aman shooting and killing the lead robed man, Hool, for having been a member of the group of rapists. In the present, Aman kills all three robed men and beheads Hool. Aman then scars the face of Slip Knot before leaving the scene.

A group of lawmen wait at a train station with their prisoners. A man named Fabulos and a whore named Angel are among the chained captives. Priest Apollo Jones makes a sales pitch to the lawmen as an apothecary. Just as the wagon arrives to transport the captives, gunfire erupts from the distance. Many of the lawmen are killed. The shooter is revealed to be Aman, who then shoots Fabulos free from his chains before the wagon pulls in to collect the others. Aman recruits Fabulos as a partner.

The prisoners are transported to Enoch’s Hammer, where Marshall Gaza presides over their impending executions. A group of blonde haired men and women in robes join each other in prayer at the gallows. As Gaza preaches to the condemned, a skinless man named Kansa and his consort Kiss Cut kill a tailor. Kansa assumes the murdered man’s face as his own and then confronts Gaza. Along with their summoned cohorts, Kansa and Kiss Cut abscond with the prisoners after shooting all of the lawmen.

Aman gives Fabulos a gun and then traps him in an underground tunnel filled with creatures. Aman forces Fabulos to fight his way free as a form of training. Aman then offers Fabulos payment to help him hunt more of the creatures.

Aman tells Fabulos the story of a pregnant whore, his mother, who turned to thievery. The Sisters of San Diablo rescued her from the gallows and taught her the secrets of the dead. When Aman was born, she was forced to send her son to an orphanage. At the age of twelve, Aman was taken in by the mistress of a slaughterhouse who taught her trade to the boy. Aman eventually fell in love with her daughter Sueno. While Aman was away, five men came and raped Sueno. She kept the incident secret until she ended up bearing a child. Unable to deal with the rape and the pregnancy, Aman left Sueno. He returned five years later to discover that she had died during childbirth. Aman then embarked on a quest to exact vengeance against all five men.

Kansa reunites with Skullbucket, who was also one of the men previously killed by Aman. Kansa plans to resurrect his son Troy, as he is the only person murdered by Aman who did not return to life.

Aman returns with Fabulos to the desolate ranch. It is revealed that the ranch is still run by the Mistress who raised Aman. The child who hid earlier is her new Apprentice Boy. The Mistress confronts Aman about his vendetta. The Apprentice Boy practices the slingshot with Fabulos. Aman remembers sensing his mother watching him from the distance as a boy.

Kansa’s acolyte Mosca prepares Troy’s body for resurrection. In the pocket of prisoner Apollo Jones, Mosca finds a map to Skull Mountain, which will lead Kansa to the Sisterhood of San Diablo and the key to his son’s resurrection. Slip Knot arrives at the camp and Kansa learns that Aman has returned. Kansa sends Skullbucket to find and kill Aman.

The Mistress tells Fabulos that Aman previously killed the five men he is now hunting. Before they can be surprise attacked, Aman blows the head off a man who infiltrated their camp. Skullbucket and his soldiers arrive. Aman defends the camp with assistance from both Fabulos and the Apprentice Boy. After the battle, Fabulos is left dying from a wound in his side. Aman shoots and kills him. Fabulos later returns to life. It is revealed that when Aman died after exacting revenge the first time, his mother made a deal to sacrifice her life in exchange for his. Part of that pact involved a curse on Aman that resurrects anyone slain by his hand.

While Kansa taunts Angel, his men discover the portal entrance protected by the sisterhood. Aman arrives and kills Kiss Cut in a shootout. He also kills Mosca before finally confronting Kansa. Fabulos comes to Aman’s side. After Kansa and Aman draw, Aman shoots a hole in Kansa’s head. He then blows the head off Troy’s body and decapitates Kansa. Fabulos rescues Angel. Aman then walks into the distance with Kansa’s head.

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Review:

The surface of “Gallowwalkers” gives it the appearance of being a genre-blending mix of Wild West action coupled with undead horror.  And while those elements are included, everything is crushed under a script that generates unintended laughs when it is not busy bringing fingernails to the scalp with a confusing story and a nonsensical plot structure.

Legend has it that when Nostradamus prophesized his infamous quatrains, he threw them into the air and published them in the order in which they landed, instead of the order in which they were written.  The purpose was reportedly so that deciphering their meanings and chronology would be more challenging for academics.  Taking a page from the French seer’s playbook, the filmmakers here went with a similar approach in constructing the scenes for “Gallowwalkers.”  The sequence of events, character appearances, and revelatory dialogue exchanges are in direct competition with each other to see which can be the most random, vague, and indecipherable.

Wesley Snipes is Aman, a cursed gunman out for a second time to avenge the evil done to his beloved.  The first time, Aman was able to punish Kansa and his band of rapists via the manner in which outlaws typically dispense their brand of justice.  But a deal made between Aman’s mother and The Devil to save Aman’s life came with a curse.  Those who die by Aman’s hand are doomed to be resurrected as creatures called “gallowwalkers.”  Now Aman has to kill them all again, and make sure that they remain dead once and for all.

That would have been story enough, but “Gallowwalkers” refuses to stop there.  Adding to the plotline pileup is Kansa’s search for the gateway between Heaven and Hell.  Where exactly that door would lead is anyone’s guess.  Is that Limbo, Earth, Purgatory, or what?  There is also a sisterhood that protects the portal, an imprisoned preacher hawking snake oil, a high and mighty sheriff, and a whore turned thief that have something to do with the story, as well.  Oh, and the Mistress who runs the slaughterhouse, her Apprentice Boy, the man Aman recruits as his partner, some guy with horns on his head, and assorted gang members in the current timeline as well as one from the past.

According to the credits, these characters have names, although the script may be the only other place where their monikers are used.  Fueling the rampant confusion that plagues the film is an overflowing roster of people whose identities and affiliations are unclear from their screen entrances to their screen exits.  People come and go, mutter goofy phrases, change appearances, wear masks, and do everything in their power to keep the audience wondering what is going on, no matter how hard anyone tries to pay attention.

Promotional materials for the film give the impression that the “gallowwalkers” can be likened to zombies, but this is not the case.  Having been resurrected after death, “gallowwalkers” are technically undead, but their portrayal is actually as more of a creature no different than another evil human, except with albino features and a more sinister attitude.

Wesley Snipes’ presence in “Gallowwalkers” is billed as the main attraction when in reality, his performance is the only one of the film’s detriments that cannot be directly attributed to the script.  Snipes must have grown so comfortable over the course of three outings as Marvel Comics’ Blade that he is incapable of portraying a fantasy hero as anything other than a Saturday morning cartoon character.  Between the labored dialogue delivery and the exaggerated gestures, stifling a snicker at his character’s every action is a colossal challenge.  Snipes’ Aman generally appears onscreen already standing like a stoic statue as his duster flaps in the wind.  He seems equally unable to move his head without it being a slow upward nod that peers from beneath the brim of a hat.

The tragedy of “Gallowwalkers” is that it is a disappointing waste of a decent mythology and genuinely inspired production design.  The gunman out for revenge may be a Western genre trope, but the backdrop of a world with sentient undead, demonic pacts, curses, and cults mixed with saloon prostitutes, preachers, and outlaws has myriad possibilities for satisfying entertainment.  Except “Gallowwalkers” makes things harder than they need to be with the narrative structure of “Memento” meshed with “Pulp Fiction,” but without a story that fits the format.

Shot on location in Namibia, the African landscape is surprisingly different than desert scenes shot in the American southwest.  It is subtle, but the open landscapes of sun-drenched sand dunes have a noticeable feel to them that makes the set design pop.  Even as spartan and singular structures posed against desolate backdrops, the rustic camps and buildings appear to be functional locations.

Creature makeups are inventive and effective, particularly a skinless man whose musculature is creatively designed and sculpted.  Costumes blend an occasional Mad Max vibe with flowing holy robes and intricate gunslinger gear.  For as much time, energy, and money that went into the visual aspects of the film, there are strangely noticeable holes in the budget, however.  One thing that stands out is the horrible wig work.  That so much effort in production design could be felled by skimping on something like fake hair is really a travesty.

Of course, the greater travesty is that everything admirable about the design and the look of “Gallowwalkers” is in service to a script whose structure never had a chance of turning into an enjoyable story.  The actors are dressed the part and placed in a fitting location, ready to deliver the western horror goods.  Meanwhile, the story is playing a game of Twister with itself while struggling for an identity as something other than a silly, clustered, and nearly unwatchable mess.

Review Score:  30

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