The first vampire western In a small town in the Wild West, there is a series of mysterious deaths of local residents, mostly young women. The city doctor can't establish the cause, but notices small marks on the victims' necks. When he himself dies under strange circumstances, his children – daughter Dolores and son Tim – believe that it is the fault of a neighbor with whom the family has a long-standing feud. Soon, Tim dies, and then Dolores hires a mysterious shooter named Drake Roby for revenge, who dresses in black and talks in riddles. She doesn't know that Robie is a vampire. Only one person can stand up to him – local priest Dan Young, who is in love with Dolores. Dan's only weapon is his faith.
Westerns and vampire movies have their history since the beginning of the XX century, but only the director Edward Dane first guessed to combine these genres in one picture. Despite the extremely limited budget, he skillfully creates an unsettling atmosphere that becomes increasingly grim and depressing with each new victim. Although the acting is not always perfect, the script of the tape, which was written by the director himself with his wife, was so unusual for its time that it can even be forgiven some shortcomings. For example, the fact that a vampire who is supposed to be afraid of daylight walks around the city in the bright sun. It is worth mentioning such a curious fact: the performer of the role of the vampire Michael Pate after many years as a director shot the film Tim, the title role in which played a young Mel Gibson.
Thus, if you liked the film “From dusk until dawn”, then you should not miss the “Curse of the dead”, which in the sense of the plot is a kind of precursor to the film Robert Rodriguez. Although the second film is much less known in Russia, it definitely deserves attention.
6 out of 10