movieswithgreg

Dear Josh Gates: you're too good for this nonsense. You had a good thing going with Expedition Unknown and Files, etc. Ok, maybe your ratings aren't up to network desires. But this desperate venture into the ratings-rich ghosthunter woo woo oogah boogah "I heard a sound, I saw a sight" nonsense demeans your franchise reputation.

Even the topics I dig, like the Transylvania episode, made me feel dirty for watching it. After all, how often will your female host continue to be so willing to view everything as supernatural? I think I see lights in the forest. Wait? What? You should start whispering so that we can believe it's creepy, and so we can dispense with our adult-earned dismissal that the hosts are just making everything up.

Please walk away from this. It's just low budget video scat.

These things need to be said. The socio-cultural sins of this film were de rigeur for the mid- 1950s, but we're reviewing this in the 21st century, and they should not be ignored, because young people watch this stuff.

White people playing Modoc natives. Latinos playing Modoc natives. Everyone but native actors playing Modoc natives. Then there's the "friendly Indians" vs the bad Indians. Of course, the friendly Indians are defined by the degree to which they comply with white demands.

They Indians in this movie look like Apaches. The actual Modoc natives this film is based on, dressed very differently. The point here is not that Westerns must be historically accurate; after all, no one likes a "rivet-counter." Rather, the point here is that it's grotesque and culturally dismissive to promote the image that "all Indians are alike." That "any injun will do."

Then there's the geographical appropriation.

The Sedona, Arizona scenery is beautiful and dramatic. After all, Sedona is known for that very thing. But the red sands and rocks of Arizona resemble nothing of the Northern Californian-Oregon-Idaho settings where the Modocs existed, and where Captain Jack operated. Not even the Oregon high desert of Southeast Oregon where it was set.

This film is typical of the big budget technicolor Westerns of the golden era of the Western - the 1950s. It was likely popular at the time, and understandably so. But today, it should be pushed to the back of the shelf, no matter how pretty it is to lock at.

The sad part is that many viewers will think this is real. This is part of a growing field of spoofs, hoaxes, mockumentaries that try too hard to be real.

But why? Why bother? It has little value as a comedy, because it's too dry and close to the vest for that.

So the only good conclusion I can make is that this is a "resume" film. A project made to show future producers and investors that the director/producer here can make a horror film. Horror films are the most profitable films in Hollywood, so that's where the smart "junior" filmmakers will go.

The funny thing is that the plot could be rendered in a straight feature film. As vampire genre goes, it's a decent story if treated right. But otherwise, it's pointless, other than a spoof of how fake actual reality shows are. But that point doesn't need an hour and a half to drive home that stake.