Cowboys & Zombies

Introduction

Cowboys & Zombies was a low budget film from Left Films, originally released in 2010 as The Dead & The Damned that has been repackaged, re-titled and re-released as Cowboys & Zombies to cash in on upcoming blockbuster Cowboys & Aliens.  Regardless of the film itself, it's a good move by Left Films as the page on Amazon for this film attests as confusion naturally takes holds.

Anyway, it's 1849 and effeminate sounding bounty hunter Mortimer (David A Lockhart) is in the middle of a rather lame gunfight in a set of sheds designed by B&Q, hunting a vicious killer in order to collect the reward. Despite picking up his substantial bounty, it ain't enough and Mortimer is after another target - pointed in the direction of Apache Indian Brother Wolf (Robert Mora). Brother Wolf is apparently guilty of raping and killing a white girl, a large bounty has been placed on his head by her father. Mortimer is warned that his big rival bounty hunter The German is also after the same bounty.

Arriving in old West town Jamestown, Mortimer is helpfully informed where he can find his target.  It appears that everyone knows where he is but no one has been able to get near him, numerous bounty hunters going before him but never returning. This doesn't deter our softly spoken hero, who promptly buys a young girl from a nearby would-be pimp. Rhiannon (Camille Montgomery) is meant to be the bait that lures Brother Wolf out, but doesn't quite work in the way intended - although inevitably the Apache is taken into custody due to the bounty hunter's penchant for hidden weapons.

Meanwhile a local farmer and his son uncover a strange green glowing meteorite that that drag into Jamestown on a wheelbarrow. With everyone gathered round, the rather thick farmer decides to whack the rock with various implements,  looking to see if anything valuable falls out, but only succeeds in unleashing deadly green spores that turn everyone in town into zombies. And all of them take to the woods on the trail of Mortimer and his group…

Extras

Only a Stills Gallery to keep you occupied on the extras front…

Overall

To be honest, I wasn't really expecting much from this but was pleasantly surprised. Although it's nowhere near the best zombie film you'll ever see, it's quite a warm and welcoming film really. The film has a number of faults that should put you off, but they don't.

The sets are pretty bad, as described above, seemingly a bunch of sheds brought from B&Q that are used sparingly in the first sequence so that they can all be reused as the town of Jamestown. The accents of both Mortimer and his rival The German are quite funny and not quite what you would expect. The gun fights are bad and the way Mortimer expends lead at the zombies while running through the woods is a little silly. The zombies are the fast model rather the more usual bumbling slow movers, but ultimately just line up to die - although they do some damage themselves as well. And there's more…

But…the central casting of our hero with a dark secret (oh, really?), the wronged Apache (did you think it would ever be otherwise?) and the innocent but feisty heroine is good enough to carry the film. I did say carry, it certainly doesn't elevate it into the realms of quality film but does enough to make you feel
like you're not wasting your time.

Quite enjoyable - Ninja's Vs Aliens is next…