Left for Dead

Whilst searching for her missing husband Blake (Javier De la Vega), tough, pistol packing babe Clementine (Victoria Maurette) runs across a community of outcast whores who have fled the town of Amnesty after murdering the townsfolk, including its preacher (Andres Bagg) and his pregnant wife. These murderous women are also keen to lay their hands on Blake, for they believe him to be a rapist, but are unwilling to follow him into the deserted town, for this is where the spirit of the preacher patiently waits for revenge...

In my opinion, director Albert Pyun must suffer from severe Hollywooditis, a condition that causes untalented hacks to believe that they are actually successful Hollywood directors. The results are never pretty.

In this instance, poor Mr.Pyun is clearly under the delusion that he is Tony Scott, circa 2004, which explains why his low budget western/horror Left For Dead attempts to mimic Scott's dreadful, self-indulgent movie 'Man on Fire' so closely in style. Unfortunately for Pyun (and his audience), not only is he stricken with the urge to emulate one of Scott's most dire efforts, utilising all of the horrible visual trickery that made that movie such a chore to sit through (flickering imagery, desaturated colours, distressed filters, unnecessary freeze-frames, slow-motion, and even novelty subtitles for both Spanish and English dialogue), but the absence of a mega budget, A-list cast, and, more pointedly, any talent whatsoever behind the camera or in the editing room, makes this project an infinitely more painful viewing experience than anything Scott has ever dished up.

A lengthy prologue attempts to explain the back story to this steaming crap-fest, but is so poorly written that it does little to help viewers' understanding of the movie. The dreadful script, combined with equally awful acting and an over-reliance on absurd visual gimmickry, all go to make this one hell of a bad film which I genuinely believe deserves the lowest rating possible (others have rated this a 'one' to try and counteract the fake positive reviews, whereas I rate it that low simply because I genuinely hated it!).

Still, as much as I have suffered whilst watching this cack, I'm still able to spare a thought for poor old Pyun—if only his affliction had left him thinking he was Scorsese or Spielberg in their prime, things might have been different.

Saw an advance copy of this film which comes out next month. Good lord what a mind trip. It's both beautifully affecting and horribly shocking. I haven't seen a film with so much intense pain and love in a long time. It just gets under your skin then chews into your heart. The story is a ghost story and as it is with most ghost stories, tragedy is at it's core. The actors in this film are so vivid that they didn't seem to be acting, especially the main one Victoria Maurete. Her acting is so powerful that I could feel what she was going through. I haven't seen her before but damn was she moving and beautiful. Those eyes of hers are unreal. I won't give away much because surprising revelations is what pushes this story forward. But be forewarned that this is a very intense and original western. I loved it.

I'm still going over the film in my head and I've watched the DVD twice as well. No spoilers as I just wanted to comment on the cast. I thought it was refreshing to see real women in a desperate situation unlike so many horror films which feature nubile bikini wearing females in desperate situations. The cast felt like women struggling to survive in the Mexico frontier in 1890. Hard, half daft, angry and frighteningly ruthless. They quite embodied what it must have been like and they also looked like the type that could believably survive. No cutesy starlet bimbo types, but tough, rugged women who look they live through much abuse.

The feminine anger of betrayal and being degraded was etched into each character almost painfully.

I thought the odd speech patterns worked as it revealed damaged minds and souls.

The film wasn't perfect. The special effects could've been better and the action slowed a bit too much in the middle. Very sad and filled with a great helping of pain and grief. I found it riveting and much more enjoyable on the second watching.

I remember years back as a kid the first Albert Pyun movie I saw was CYBORG, then after that I saw NEMESIS, and I enjoyed them both mainly because they looked cool, and as a kid I never really paid attention to the flaws or tried to over analyze the plot, I just liked CYBORG because I was a big Van Damme fan, and I liked NEMESIS because it was something different, and over the years every time I saw Albert Pyun's name on a film, I would immediately say that's the guy who directed CYBORG & NEMESIS, but of course, he has directed some terrible films, such as that URBAN MENACE junk and a few others that made me wonder if this actually was directed by the same guy.

LEFT FOR DEAD was the first Pyun movie I saw since TICKER, and compared to the other films I've seen before, it was nothing like any of Pyun's previous work, and I mean that in a good way, sure its no masterpiece, but it is also not the worst movie out there, I actually liked the storyline, it was very original and unfolded nicely, I'll also add that I am not a die hard fan of the spaghetti western genre so I guess its easier for me to accept it as it is, the acting was not all bad but also not all good, entertainment wise, a lot of people might find it a bit on the boring side, because it doesn't have any major action sequences or anything that will make you jump out of your seat, it is mainly focused on being more of a ghost story than anything else, other than that it has a part near the ending that is pretty gross.

I actually liked this film, and for those that consider it the worst movie you've ever seen, check out these titles, HUNTING SEASON, THE CAVERN and FIVE ACROSS THE EYES, then you'll know what's worse.

Not a bad film, unlike other reviews I have seen for it I believe that this film is a perfect example of a B-Film. The story line isn't too deep and the actors are not unbelievably gripping.

This being said the reasons most don't seem to like it are the exact reason it is an okay film, and an excellent example of a b-movie. Like all b-films it can be a mini-cult classic like almost every Bruce Campbell film and a background noise film, entertaining enough to be on in the background and for you to have focus every now and again.

If you want to watch an okay film I would recommend this for the sheer novelty, if you want to insult a b-film I would recommend another one like, erm, I know how many runs you scored last summer.