FILM REVIEW OF ''THE STRANGERS: PREY FOR NIGHT" (2018)

Indeed, “The Strangers: Prey for Night” (** OUT OF ****) arrives ten years later as a belated sequel to writer & director Bryan Bertino’s 2008 horror chiller “The Strangers.”  Although Kristen McKay (Liv Tyler) survived in the original “Strangers,” she doesn’t show up for the sequel.  While Bertino received first credit for writing this follow-up film, “Forrest of the Damned” director Johannes Roberts has taken over the helm, and “30 Days of Night: Dark Days” scribe Ben Ketai has contributed to the screenplay.  Mind you, “The Strangers: Prey for Night” lacks the nihilistic artistry of “The Strangers.” Nevertheless, the sequel proves far more satisfying in terms of dramatic closure.  Whereas only Liv Tyler lived in “The Strangers,” two characters escape the knives, ax, and vehicular mayhem in “Prey for Night.”  No, you don’t need to watch “The Strangers” again to appreciate its tardy sequel.  If you do, you may notice certain scenes are replicated here for greater impact.  One of the things that made “The Strangers” such a startling exercise in terror was its violence.  At one point, Kristen’s terrified boyfriend, James Hoyt (Scott Speedman) found a shotgun.  Unfortunately, when he wielded it, Hoyt accidentally killed Mike (Glenn Howerton), his best friend.  Since the front door stood ajar, Mike had blundered into the house, and Hoyt mistook Mike for one of the three foes.  Nobody perishes from friendly fire in “Prey at Night.”  The two films share some similarities, but they remain largely different based on their respective settings.  “The Strangers” emphasized claustrophobia because the bedlam occurred in a ranch house in the woods.  The hysterics in “Prey at Night” are not confined to one house.  Instead, the pandemonium rages within an isolated trailer park where only the manager and his wife remain during the off-season.  Ostensibly, the two movies take place after dark, and the predators eventually sabotage all means of communication.  As slick as Johannes Roberts’ direction is, “Prey for Night” amounts to a lukewarm, standard-issue, 1980s slasher saga.  Bits and pieces of the storyline—not the body parts of its slain victims—have been tweaked sufficiently to make it its 85-minute running time tolerable.

In “The “Strangers,” Kristen and James had just gotten home after attending a wedding.  Clearly, they were amorous couple, but they had not set a date for their own wedding.  “The Strangers: Prey at Night” deals with a family in turmoil.  Cindy (Christina Hendricks of “The Neon Demon”) and her husband Mike (Martin Henderson of “Windtalkers”) are driving their problem child daughter, Kinsey (Bailee Madison of “Just Go with It”), to a boarding school.  Kinsey has a rebellious streak a mile wide.  She wears Goth girl make-up and smokes cigarettes without inhaling them.  All of Kinsey’s girlfriends skip school and participate in activities just as onerous as she did, but their parents haven’t punished them.  Cindy tells her defiant daughter she wishes that her mother could have confronted her problem as she has Kinsey’s.  Mike loads up the mini-van, and they pick up Kinsey’s older brother, Luke (Lewis Pullman of “Battle of the Sexes”), who has been playing baseball with his pals. Naturally, Kinsey and Mike annoy each other during the journey.  Although the family fell behind their scheduled departure, Cindy has left a telephone message for Uncle Marvin at Gatlin Lake Trailer Park that they will be arriving late.  We the audience already suspect this family is headed for an ill-fated rendezvous because the three murderers —the Man in Burlap Mask (Damian Maffei of “Nikos the Impaler,” Dollface (newcomer Emma Bellomy), and Pin-Up Girl (newcomer Lea Enslin)—have broken in on Uncle Marvin and Aunt Sheryl and relieved them off all their worldly anxieties.  Interestingly, this older couple slept with a dog between them, but the canine cowered rather than attacked.

Predictably, Cindy and family don’t have a clue about their impending doom.  They arrive after dark, and Cindy picks up their trailer key from main office.  Of course, nobody greets her.  No sooner have they settled in than somebody knocked at the door.  The knocking itself sound ominous.  Cindy opens it to find a girl standing in darkness on the porch.  The outside light is not shining, so Cindy cannot see the girl’s face.  The girl asks her if Tamara is home.  Cindy disappoints her, and she watches the girl leave.  Stubborn Kinsey refuses to play cards with Cindy and Mike, and she storms out of the trailer to smoke.  Cindy sends Luke after Kinsey.  After the sinister prologue, director Johannes Roberts devotes about thirty minutes acquainting audiences with the family.  They appear average.  The parents are struggling to raise their two children, but one has run off the rails.  If a message lurks in “The Strangers: Prey for Night,” could it be: “think twice about sending your daughters to boarding school?”  Otherwise, Cindy and Mike seem like a model couple with few flaws.

“The Strangers: Prey for Night” differs from its predecessor because its victims enjoy a greater chance of survival. Meantime, the filmmakers have scrupulously observed the rules of the slasher fest.  The masked villains are virtually indestructible.  Some can recover from the worst injuries.  An older man wearing a burlap bag drives them around in a battered Ford pick-up.  He is dressed in a suit and tie.  He favors an ax.  Something about the way an ax sounds as it is dragged across concrete appeals to him.  The two girls prefer kitchen knives.  They display no emotions whatsoever when they maim or slaughter their victims.  The masked dastards in “The Strangers” behaved in similar fashion.  One of Cindy’s family asks her assailant why she is trying to kill her.  “Why not?” the girl utters with a dreamy gaze.  Not surprisingly, when the stabbing starts, the family goes berserk.  They do the usual, foolhardy things victims do.  Everything about “The Strangers: Prey for Night” is hackneyed, but the film adheres to the slasher formula with enough style to make it adequate for a rental.

FILM REVIEW OF ''SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN" (2012)

Hollywood has been cranking out cinematic adaptations of Snow White since the silent 1916 version.  In 1933, vampy cartoon heroine Betty Boop played the raven-haired princess in a 7-minute, surrealistic, black & white cartoon from Max Fleischer's Studios before Disney immortalized our fair maiden.  Recently, “Immortals” director Tarsem Singh helmed an adaptation of the Snow White fairy tale called “Mirror, Mirror” with Julia Roberts as the sinful stepmom.  Now, rookie British director Rupert Sanders and freshman scenarist Evan Daugherty, along with “The Blind Side” scribe John Lee Hancock and “Drive’s” Hossein Amini, have reimagined this melodrama as a much darker chick flick.  They’ve made it palatable not only for girls but also guys.  Imagine “Joan of Arc” crossed with “The Lord of the Rings,” and you’ve got a good idea about what to expect.  As the second take on the venerable Brothers Grimm fairy tale this year, “Snow White and the Huntsman” (*** out of ****) departs considerably the 1937 Walt Disney classic.  The protagonist here isn’t the clueless maiden who cooks and cleans for a clan of cuddly dwarves.  After escaping from her depraved stepmom and stumbling through a supernatural forest with all kinds of creepy critters, “Twilight’s” Kristen Stewart makes herself over into an armor-clad, sword-wielding Amazon who saddles up with an army of troops to ride back to her father’s castle and reclaim the kingdom.  Good adventure movies require stalwart heroines who don’t necessarily play second fiddle to the heroes.  A bearded Chris Hemsworth, whose character shares little in common with his Marvel Comics alter-ego “Thor,” brandishes both a hatchet as the eponymous “Huntsman,” but he doesn’t push our heroine around for long before she whistles a different tune.  Mind you, good adventures must also boast diabolical villains.  Oscar-winning actress Charlize Theron steals the show as the malicious stepmother and qualifies as the most fascist femme that you’ll ever see.  She is a succubus rolled up into a sorceress.  Aside from her brother, this despicable villainess abhors men with a passion and loves literally to stick it to them—right in the gizzard with a sharp blade.

“Snow White and the Huntsman” follows the Brothers Grimm story when Queen Eleanor (newcomer Liberty Ross) pricks her finger on a blooming rose in the dead of winter and watches three drops of blood splatter in the snow.  Eleanor bears a child but then not long afterward dies.  Snow White’s grieving father King Magnus (Noah Huntley of “Your Highness”) rides into battle against a mysterious enemy that his army hacks into heaps of obsidian shards. Afterward, they discover a poor damsel-in-distress chained up like a slave in a wagon on the battlefield.  This unfortunate woman, Ravenna (Charlize Theron of “Monster”), seduces the monarch and later they marry.  During their wedding night, Ravenna stabs the unsuspecting king to death with a large knife thrust into his chest.  “Snow White and the Huntsman” skirts blood and gore as much as possible.  Nevertheless, the inventive Sanders shows some flair by having a pitcher of wine spill at least a quart of its dark red contents on the floor as a metaphor for the king’s loss of blood.  Ravenna wastes no time with the king’s daughter and locks young Snow White up in a tower.  No sooner has this incident transpired than Ravenna has her servants hang a mirror so she can admire her beauty.  Of course, this mirror is no ordinary mirror.  Everybody knows that the wicked stepmother-turned-queen has conversations with it.  The difference is that before the mirror replies to her, it behaves like the Robert Patrick terminator in “Terminator 2.”  The mirror oozes out onto the floor into a pool and then assumes the shape of a figure in a cloak.  This ingenious touch and the many others that ensue make “Snow White and the Huntsman” into an imaginative, above-average yarn with surprises galore.

After Snow White has grown up, Ravenna realizes that she has a problem.  She is beginning to age.  She sends her equally wicked brother her Finn (Sam Spruell of “Defiance”) off to fetch fresh flesh.  Finn brings her a young maiden, and Ravenna literally sucks the beauty of her mouth without touching her lips.  Indeed, Ravenna imitates the infamous Countess Báthory who slashed up young women and bathed in their blood.  Eventually, Ravenna learns that she must dine on Snow White’s heart and sends Finn off to get her.  A couple of birds fly up to Snow White’s window in the tower and she finds a loose nail.  Later, when Finn tries to dally with our heroine, she cuts him up and escapes from the castle.  The furious Ravenna enlists the aid of a drunken lout, the Huntsman (Chris Hemsworth of “The Cabin in the Woods”) and he sets out to find Snow White.  Sensing something amiss, the Huntsman alters his allegiance and helps Snow White elude Finn and his henchmen.  About an hour into the action, our hero and heroine encounter eight dwarves who are thieves.

Future filmmakers will have to struggle to surpass what Sanders and his scribes have done both with the nefarious stepmother and the other elements.  If some of those dwarves that associate with Snow White look familiar, they are.  Sanders and company haven’t cast genuine dwarves.  Instead, they have pasted the heads of notable real-life actors, including Nick Frost of “Shaun of the Dead,” Ian McShane of HBO’s “Deadwood,” and Ray Winstone of “The Departed,” onto the bodies of these little people.  You’ve got to see these gritty little guys to believe them.  The scenery, the sets, the wardrobe, and the computer-generated-special effects are all fantastic.  Unfortunately, the chemistry between Kristen Stewart and her two suitors, Chris Hemsworth as the eponymous Huntsman and her childhood friend Sam Claflin, frizzle rather than sizzle.  Meanwhile, “Snow White and the Huntsman” has coined almost $100-million domestically and another $83-million overseas so Universal Studios is talking about a sequel.  Ironically, the studio was counting on “Battleship” to deliver, but it sank and “Snow White” has replaced it.  “Snow White and the Huntsman” qualifies as an unforgettable fairy tale with an edge. 

FILM REVIEW OF ''ABOVE THE LAW" (1988)

Steven Seagal looks emaciated in director Andrew Davis’ hard boiled crime thriller “Above the Law,” (*** out of ****) co-starring skull-faced Hollywood heavy Henry Silva as a knife-wielding psycho.  Reportedly, Seagal broke into the film business because one of his students, the highly respected Hollywood agent Michael Ovitz, made it happen. “Above the Law” qualifies as a formulaic law and order epic about narcotics smuggling and an assassination attempt on an incorruptible U.S. Senator.  Most of the action takes place in Chicago with Seagal defeating the loathesome villains with his usual brand of aggressive tenacity.  Seagal uses Aikiko on them when he isn’t swapping lead. The title refers to nobody being immune from justice.  Ironically, Davis emphasizes this point with newsreel footage of U.S. President Richard Nixon quoting Abraham Lincoln on the subject. Remember Nixon was the Republican who resigned in disgrace over the Watergate Scandal.  The Andrew Davis & Steven Seagal screenplay features more autobiographical material about the martial arts star than any of his other epics.  Indeed, “Above the Law” provides a glimpse of Seagal as a youngster with several genuine pictures of the actor.  Composer David Michael Frank betrays the late 1980s origins of “Above the Love” with his cheesy B-movie score.  Nothing surprising occurs as our stalwart hero tackles the villains with a vengeance.  The villains are merciless dastards, but Nico cuts them little slack.  As it turns out, the CIA has ties with organized crime. 

Making his motion picture debut, Seagal casts himself as an Italian-American born in Palermo, Italy, who immigrated to America at age seven.  He saw a martial arts demonstration at a baseball game later on when he was a teenager. Company agent Nelson Fox (Chelcie Ross of “Major League”) initially recruited Nicolo ‘Nico’ Toscani into the CIA. Before the Agency approached him at an Embassy function in Tokyo, Nico had studied and taught martial arts in Japan.  Our naïve protagonist totes an M-16 along the border of Vietnam and Cambodia on assist and observe missions. He witnesses some things that he should haven’t seen.  “Above the Law” gets off to a good start as Nico encounters Colonel Kurt Zagon (Henry Silva of “The Hills Run Red”) as the latter is interrogating a native in the jungle.  Somebody, it seems, has been tampering with Zagon’s opium.  Our hero doesn't understand what any of this has to do with acquiring intelligence about the enemy. Nico and Zagon clash, setting up expectations for a gory finale about an hour later.  

The action shifts years later to contemporary Chicago.  Toscani has a wife Sara (Sharon Stone of “Basic Instinct”), and they have just attended the communion of their first child  Giuliano.  Nico’s pals on the force laugh about him for having more relatives under federal indictment than any other cop in Chicago.  When he isn’t patrolling the streets, Detective Sergeant Tosconi takes care of personal business relating to the disappearance of his attractive young niece.  Seagal’s first cinematic fight takes place in a bar as he is searching for her.  Even the bartender knows what to expect when Nico enters.  “This ain’t nothing but trouble coming in my place tonight,” he observes with dread.  Nico gets a tip from the low-life, Alex (Christopher Peditto), who was getting his niece hopped up on drugs.  Alex doesn't want to go to jail so he babbles about a hooker and a cocaine lawyer setting up a deal.  Nico slaps him around enough until he provides a name.  Nico is the kind of cop who isn’t above breaking the rules.  He eavesdrops via a wiretap on a conversation between a couple of Columbians. He gets wind of a shipment arriving in an engine block at the Fulton Meat Market. Later, at the market, the Feds blow the case for them and Nico chases the villains in their car on foot.  He throws himself in front of their Lincoln and tumbles across the hood and atop the roof.  After they blow some holes in the roof, Nico smashes a passenger window and clamps a hand onto Tony Salvano, one of the lawyers.  This is a reasonably suspenseful scene.  Nico is shown spread-eagle clinging to the roof of the Lincoln while the driver swerves in an effort to dislodge him.  Eventually, the driver obeys his boss and pulls over. Afterward, Nico and his buddy Detective Lukich (Ron Dean of "Code of Silence") take apart the engine block.  Instead of narcotics, they discover several packages of C-4 explosives.  The Feds arrest Tony Salvano, but they let him off the hook because he is a government snitch.

  

After FBI agent Neeley releases Salvano and his driver, they check out St. Mary’s Church where Nico has attended.  While they are in the church, , Father Gennaro (Joe V. Greco) introduces Nico and Jackson to Father Tomasino and his refugees who are hiding in the basement of the church.  The next time Nico shows up for church, a bomb goes off.  The Father delivers a message about knowing the truth.  “Our leaders tell us and talk to us about them and us.  But almighty God talks to us about all mankind as one.  Now, we have an obligation to find out what is the truth.  We need to study.  We need to question.  We need to read and we need to find out what they are doing in our name.  And we must support those brave souls who seek the truth.”  Not long after the sermon, a woman departs the sanctuary.  Nico spots a suspicious sack moments before it explodes and kills Father Gennaro.  Later, Nico discovers that the blast was meant for Father Tomasino.  The blast kills Father Gennaro.  After the explosion, a carload of thugs tries to assault Nico and he shows them his stuff.

Afterward, the Feds come down hard on Nico and persuade the Chicago Police Department to suspend him.  He surrenders his gun and badge.  This doesn’t prevent Nico from carrying out his own investigation.  Nico meets Fox on a skyscraper.  We learn that Zagon has a four thousand acre ranch in Costa Rica.  Zagon wanted Senator Ernst Harrison assassinated because he was going to expose their plans to invade Nicaragua using cocaine money.  As it turns out, Father Tomasino learned about it while in Nicaragua and Zagon fears that he may have told the senator.  Zagon doesn’t want to kill the senator is word has been leaked about it.  Nelson holds Nico at gunpoint about the same time that Zagon and his cronies arrive in an underground garage.  A gunfight erupts and the bartender kills Nelson who slides Nico his gun.  More shots are fired and Salvano is hit.  Nico backs a car into Salvano and runs the car half out of the high rise parking lot so Salvano plunges onto the elevated railway and is electrocuted to death.  Zagon and his thugs pursue Nico in another car.  They run Nico down, pick up him, and prepare to torture him. Nico surprises them, breaks through his restraints, and devastating them.  He kills two with a shotgun and breaks Zagon’s arm when he threatens him with a knife.  Afterward. He snaps Zagon’s neck.  Later, Senator Harrison drops by Nico’s house and thanks him.  Apparently, Nico appears before Congress as “Above the Law” concludes with his testimony.  “Gentlemen, whenever you have a group of individuals who are beyond any investigation who can manipulate the press, judges, members of our Congress, you’re always gonna have within our government those who are above the law.”

FILM REVIEW OF "MY SOUL TO TAKE" (2010)

“Scream” trilogy director Wes Craven must have been brushing up on his slasher movie skills for his forthcoming “Scream 4” when he decided to make his latest thriller “My Soul to Take.” This strictly sophomoric exercise in formulaic murder and mayhem in a high school setting with a capable cast of no-name teens qualifies as a rental when you acquire a free movie coupon. Surprisingly, writer & director Wes Craven has penned and helmed a predictable as well as incoherent serial killer thriller that lacks everything that made the “Scream” movies so memorable. Worse, “My Soul to Take” (** out of ****) is another one of those 3-D movies that wasn’t originally lensed in 3-D. Instead, the studio converted it to 3-D like “Clash of the Titans.” In other words, the 3-D effects--even in a digital presentation—don’t have in-your-face, visually dynamic quality of genuine 3-D effects. Meaning, nothing comes flying out of the screen at you, like either ‘My Bloody Valentine” or “Resident Evil: Afterlife.” “My Soul to Take” generates minimal atmosphere, but this 107 minute, R-rated nonsense never musters any compelling characters, spine-tingling suspense, or even a big last-minute surprise. If you’re the kind of person who spots the killer long before the movie outs the killer, you’ll quickly tire of this unexceptional epic.

“My Soul to Take” opens with an absorbing action scene. A happily married husband and father, Abel (Raúl Esparza of “Find Me Guilty”), is putting the finishing touches on a wooden rocking horse in his downstairs workshop when his pregnant wife Sarah (newcomer Alexandra Wilson) asks him to join her upstairs. A television newscast about a savage serial killer in Riverton, Massachusetts, appropriately nicknamed the “Riverton Ripper,” is making Abel’s wife feel paranoid. As he is leaving his workshop, Abel slips on a tool, smashes his head on a work bench, and hits the floor. Upstairs, Sarah learns from the newscast that the authorities cannot identify the killer, even though he has been recorded on a high definition surveillance camera. Nevertheless, they have been able to magnify the murder weapon sufficiently to make out the word ‘vengeance’ on the blade. Abel spots the exact same knife with ‘vengeance’ on the blade under his work bench. Suddenly, his multiple personalities—triggered by the fall—begin to argue with him.

Abel’s homicidal personality warns him that he will slaughter his entire family if he calls his doctor. Abel phones his physician, Dr. Blake (Harris Yulin of “Scarface”), to warn him about his episode. Before the police arrive, Abel kills Sarah and is poised to stab his daughter Leah. Riverton detective Paterson (Frank Grillo of “Pride and Glory”) bursts in and shoots Abel twice. Like any standard-issue serial killer, Abel doesn’t just lie down and die. He distracts Paterson, disarms him, and shoots the detective twice in the chest. Luckily, Paterson has on a bullet-proof vest. In the ambulance, on the way to the hospital, Abel slips out of his restraints and slashes away at the ambulance nurse. All these sudden hysterics prompts the ambulance driver to swerve and the vehicle flips over and lands on a river bank. The ambulance explodes into flames as Paterson and the nurse are thrown free. Abel manages to escape into the night. The authorities never find a trace of his body.

The action fast-forwards to sixteen years later. A crowd of teenagers are holding a late night ceremony near the scorched remains of the ambulance. The teens are observing what they call “Ripper Night.” As it turns out, during the eventful night when the Abel embarked on a killing rampage, seven children were prematurely born at the hospital. Word has it that either Abel died that night or his murderous soul migrated into one of the seven prematurely born babies. Our shy, clueless protagonist ‘Bug’ (Max Thieriot of “The Astronaut Farmer”) doesn’t know anything about his desperado dad. Not only does Bug suffer from chronic migraines, but he also displays signs of schizophrenia. Bug’s vindictive sister Leah (Emily Meade of “Burning Palms”) has spread a vicious rumor that Bug has been institutionalized for mental instability. Miraculously, Bug survived the slaughter. Bug’s mischievous buddy, Alex (John Magaro of “The Box”); high school coed Brittany (television actress Paulina Olszynski); a hormone-addled jock Brandon O’Neal (Nick Lashaway of “The Last Song”); religious zealot Penelope Bright (Zena Grey of “The Shaggy Dog”); a blind African-American, Jerome (Denzel Whitaker of “The Great Debaters”); and an Asian-American, Jay (Jeremy Chu of “Mr. Deeds), constitute the other six of the ‘Riverton Seven.’

The Ripper kills Jay first. Jay is crossing a bridge on his way home when a masked killer with dreadlocks reminiscent of the alien from the “Predator” movies attacks him. A day later the authorities find Jay’s body. Not long afterward, the Ripper slashes Zena’s throat in the generator room adjacent to the school swimming pool. Brandon is chasing Brittany through the woods because he wants a blow-job from her when they stumble onto Zena’s corpse. The Ripper surprises them and stabs them to death. Craven incriminates Bug at every turn with a number of clues that make him look like the prime suspect. Bug has a way of going into different personalities and speaking like other people. Primarily, during a school prank in the girl's restroom, Bug’s cell phone winds up in Brittany's purse. Later, the police find Brittany when Bug’s mother calls his cell phone and the ringing leads them to Brittany's body.

Nothing about “My Soul to Take” is either scary or suspenseful. Mind you, the performances are pretty good, but Craven doesn’t distinguish himself with either is “Scream” like wit or staging. “My Soul to Take” is every bit as forgettable as Craven’s second-rate werewolf movie “Cursed” and never generates a third of the tension of “Red Eye.” Ultimately, the slasher here referred to as the “Riverton Ripper” isn’t very terrifying in comparison with either hockey mask clad Jason of the “Friday the 13th” franchise or Michael Myers of the “Halloween.” The slasher attacks are timed when you least expect them, but Craven doesn’t give his mass murderer anything in the way of traits or an attitude to make him intimidating. Worse, anybody who ever saw the classic Marx Brothers’ comedy “Duck Soup” will spot a rip-off of the mirror scene between Groucho and Harpo. Ultimately, “My Soul to Take” takes your money and your time with nothing to show for either.

FILM REVIEW OF ''PAYMENT IN BLOOD'' (ITALIAN-1967)

“Payment in Blood” qualifies as a violent, above-average Spaghetti western shoot’em up with a high body count. Like director Sergio Leone’s bigger budgeted “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly,” the lower budgeted “Payment in Blood” (**1/2 out of ****) concerns the quest for buried treasure. The outlaw villains embark on a search for a fabled fortune, approximately $200-thousand, stashed at an undisclosed location by Confederate General Beauregard. Of course, anybody who knows anything about Civil War history knows Beauregard had no such loot. Typically, most westerns that appropriate this plot attribute the lost Confederate gold to President Jefferson Davis. Ironically, during the opening credits sequence, which contains a montage of Civil War photographs, Beauregard’s portrait is conspicuous by its absence, while pictures of Abraham Lincoln, Robert E. Lee, and Ulysses S. Grant proliferate. The protagonist, Stuart (Edd Byrnes), has a grudge to settle with the head villain (Guy Madison) and his gang of bloodthirsty gunmen.

Primarily known overseas as “Seven Winchesters for a Massacre,” “Payment in Blood” was writer & director Enzo G. Castellari’s third western. Castellari’s first western as a director was "Few Dollars for Django" for which he received no credit, and “Any Gun Can Play” was his second oater, with a bigger, better cast. “Payment in Blood” isn’t as good as either “Any Gun Can Play” or a later Castellari Civil War western “Kill Them All and Come Back Alone” with Chuck Connors. Long-time screenwriting collaborator Tito Carpi of "Few Dollars for Django" and "Bullets and the Flesh" scribe Marino Girolami penned the formulaic plot with Castellari for “Payment in Blood.” The difference between “Payment in Blood” and “Any Gun Can Play” is the latter is more elaborate than the former. “Payment in Blood” amounts to a rather contrived western that uses the venerable plot about an individual who goes undercover to infiltrate a gang of homicidal criminals and thwart them. The dialogue is neither as amusing as “Any Gun Can Play,” but “Payment in Blood” boasts a surprise ending. Although it seems like scores of men wind up with bullet holes during the numerous shoot-outs, “Payment in Blood” lacks the titular element that became such a fixture in later westerns like “The Wild Bunch.”

The action takes place in Texas in 1867 after the conclusion of the American Civil War. A renegade Confederate officer, Colonel Thomas Blake (Guy Madison of “Drums in the Deep South”), refuses to give up the cause. During the opening moments of “Payment in Blood,” writer & director Enzo G. Castellari introduces us to not only the pugnacious Blake but also the hellspawn riding with him. Included in this notorious gang are Chamaco Gonzales (Ennio Girolami of "The Hellbenders"), knife-throwing Rios (Aysanoa Runachagua of “El Cisco”), Fred Calhoun (Federico Boido of "Planet of the Vampires"), bullwhip wielding Zeb Russel , and Mesa Alvarez (Attilio Severini of “Massacre at Grand Canyon”) who likes to kill with his spurs. Blake and his marauders carry out indiscriminate raids. They steal horses, loot homes; kill men, women and children without a qualm. Nameless supporting players standing around wanted posters of Blake’s men impart most of this information when they aren’t complaining about Blake’s depredations. The reward on Blake’s head has risen to $5-thousand. Chamaco rides into a town one day and eavesdrops on a conversation between a crippled, former Confederate soldier and a cowboy. “What can you expect from a rotten war like ours? Brother against brother. When you teach a man it’s right to kill, how can you unteach him?” The other man observes about Blake’s killers: “They have learned to like being heroes. They’ve learned to like killing.” Chamaco confronts the crippled Southerner, Jeremy, because the latter had ridden with General Beauregard and may know the location of the lost treasure. Before he can learn anything from Jeremy, Chamaco has to kill him. A military tribunal sentences Chamaco to die in front of an army firing squad. Stuart surprises the military and rescues Chamaco just as the soldiers are about to execute him. You see, Stuart is driving a covered wagon past the firing squad when he delivers his ultimatum to the army. He shoots the tip off the officer’s sword and several Winchester rifles spring out from the wagon, suggesting that several riflemen are aiming those repeaters. As it turns out, nobody has their shoulders against these long guns, and Stuart has packed a crate of dynamite in the wagon bed so when one of the soldiers opens fire on the vehicle, the wagon vanishes in an explosion.

Chamaco takes Stuart to Blake’s camp after they sneak across the Rio Grande. The place is like a natural fortress and Blake has a Gatling gun covering the entrance. Chamaco and Stuart pass inspection by the various sentries. It seems that Stuart rode with Beauregard, too, and served as one of the general’s chiefs of staff. The scenes where Stuart meets each of Blake’s gang and matches them at their own expertise are entertaining. The filming and editing of Zeb snatching the revolver out of Stuart’s holster with a bullwhip is exciting. Interesting, Mesa doesn’t perform one of his trademark flips using his spurs as deadly weapons. Each of Blake’s men has something distinctive about them from their look, heritage, and choice of weapon. After he arrives in Blake’s camp, Stuart refuses to divulge the whereabouts of the loot to the cunning colonel. Instead, Blake and his men leave the sanctuary of Mexico, cross the Rio Grande again, but with inevitable bloodshed, and ride into Texas. Along the way, they run into their first surprise and her name is Manuela (Luisa Baratto of “"Bloody Pit of Horror"). She keeps them pinned down with gunfire in one scene before they get the better of her. Feisty women are not a convention of the Spaghetti western. Before Blake’s men do anything else, they orchestrate the massacre of all the men in Durango. Castellari does a good job of staging this massive gundown. What makes the gunfight memorable is that one of Blake's men bites the dust. Eventually, Stuart does reveal the location, but only after Blake has turned his men loose on him and beaten Stuart to the point of unconsciousness. Stuart mutters the words ‘White Eagle’ and they set fire to the room and leave Stuart to burn alive. Blake’s men find a strong box buried in an Indian cemetery. Blake’s men are poised to take the loot when their commander kills Zeb for insubordination. When they finally open the strong box, Blake and his men are disgusted to learn that the $200-thousand was in worthless Confederate bank notes. Meantime, the survivors of the Durango come after Blake for killing their husbands.

Edd Byrnes appears out of place with his clean-shaven features among a cast who sport some form of facial hair. The off-beat casting of heroic Guy Madison as the murderous, tight-lipped villain isn’t as delectable as Henry Fonda’s dastardly turn in “Once Upon a Time in the West,” but it represents a considerable change of pace for Madison. The first time that we see Madison as Colonel Blake, Blake rides out of a cloud of gunfire in a town that his men and he are shooting up. Blake’s favorite words are “kill them.” As savage as this western strives to be with its high body count, there are moments such as when Blake’s men tickle their prisoner’s feet with a feather that really stand out in this above-average oater. "Few Dollars for Django" lenser Aldo Pinelli creates several interesting shots of riders-on-the-skyline with his widescreen, color cinematography. Composer Francesco De Masi provides a charismatic orchestral score that perks up this western. Once you’ve heard De Masi’s flavorful score, you won’t forget it.

You need to get the Wild East DVD copy of this movie, because all other copies are going to be defective.