A review of The Pale Door, a 2020 horror film that blends the Western genre with supernatural scares. The film follows a group of outlaws who encounter a coven of witches after a botched train heist.
Western horror is a criminally underutilized genre blend. The scorching sun hanging over the backdrop of the Old West can prove bleak and hostile, making this extreme environment the perfect stage for grittier horrors. This was clearly the thought process behind Aaron B. Koontz’s 2020 The Pale Door . Following brothers Jake (Devin Druid) and Duncan (Zachary Knighton), members of the outlaw Dalton gang, in the wake of a train heist, The Pale Door takes a surprising turn into supernatural horror.
This pivot from a stereotypical cowboy flick into insane witchcraft is smooth and makes for a riveting watch. Train heists are a Western staple, and they usually go wrong. The first act of The Pale Door is no different, dedicated solely to a heist that quickly goes pear-shaped. As the outlaws scramble to find help for their injured leader, they find themselves at the mercy of a coven of witches. Revealed to have been burned at the stake, the witches demand one of the men stay with them, and from there, these cowboys have to fight for their lives to flee. This genre switch-up feels reminiscent of From Dusk Till Dawn, and fans of the Rodriguez film will likely love The Pale Door for the similar structure and dark comedy. The Dalton gang is composed of classic outlaw characters. There are the brothers who the film is primarily concerned with, acting as the beating heart of The Pale Door, but also Lester (Stan Shaw), the surrogate father, Wylie (Pat Healy), the brains of the operation, and Dodd (Bill Sage), the rude cowboy. Everyone's performance is great, even when the dialogue falters into cliché, keeping the scenes grounded. When the horror picks up, Druid, Knighton, Shaw, Healy, and Sage are able to convincingly portray the terror of the supernatural, while also maintaining that swaggering confidence native to the outlaw stereotyp
WESTERN HORROR THE PALE DOOR SUPERNATURAL OUTLAWS DARK COMEDY
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