Ghost Town
Ghost Town
R | 11 November 1988 (USA)
Ghost Town Trailers

Deputy Langley tracks a kidnapped girl to an abandoned ghost town. However, the town is not abandoned, but haunted by the spirits of an outlaw, Devlin, and his gang, who hold the equally deceased townspeople hostage until the outlaws can be killed by a lawman.

Reviews
TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.
HottWwjdIam There is just so much movie here. For some it may be too much. But in the same secretly sarcastic way most telemarketers say the phrase, the title of this one is particularly apt.
Robert Joyner The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one
Gary The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.
merklekranz The walking dead inhabit a ghost town in the modern day southwest. Among the town folk is a monstrous villain who terrorizes everyone. Into this hell hole stumbles a modern day sheriff, looking for a missing girl. The effects, makeup, and authentic location somewhat overcome the below average acting. Memorable characters include Bruce Glover as "Dealer", and even more interesting is Jimmie F. Skaggs as "Devlin". "Dealer" has a knack for telling the future through his card reading. "Your future will wait till you get there, it's the past you can't do anything about." Skaggs actually saves the film as the nasty villain "Devlin". A strong bad guy is an essential part of any good western, or for that matter any zombie western. - MERK
cllangkjaer Ghost Town is a great movie that I fell fortune to have seen, because as I've heard, it was very close not to see the light of day. Ghost Town was made close to the collapse of Empire Pictures in 1988/89. At this time, Empire "an Italian/American based company" was in production with "Robot Jox" there must ambitious production jet. During the late 1980's, a sudden drop in economy forced the company into bankruptcy, leaving productions like Ghost town, Robot Jox, Catacombs and the infamous Puls Pounders stranded. The project must have been blessed with good fortune, because Ghost Town finished post-production, though no original movie score was made. Instead music from other Empire movies like, Crawlspace, Ghoulies II and From Beyond was used and the finished film was picked up by New World Pictures and released on VHS and Laserdisc. Rumour also has it, that Richard Governor walked of the set in anger toward the end of the shoot, due to difference of opinion, leaving DP Mac Ahlberg and the assistant director to finish the picture. I assume it must have been a terrible experience for him, because as far as I know, Mr. Governor never worked in the movie business again. I would like to point out, that I think he did good job and in my opinion there is no other movie quit like it.
Paul Andrews Ghost Town starts as Kate Barrett (Catherine Hickland) drives along an isolated desert road, her car suddenly breaks down & she hears horses hoofs approaching... Deputy Sheriff Langley (Frank Luz) of Riverton County is called in to investigate Kate's disappearance after her father reports her missing. He finds her broken down car & drives off looking for her, unfortunately his car breaks down too & he has to walk. Langley ends up at at a deserted rundown ghost town, much to his shock Langley soon discovers that it is quite literally a ghost town as it's populated by the ghosts of it's former residents & is run by the evil Devlin (Jimmie F. Skaggs) who has kidnapped Kate for reasons never explained & it's up to Langley to rescue her & end the towns curse...The one & only directorial effort of Richard Governor this odd film didn't really do much for me & I didn't like it all that much. The script by Duke Sandefur tries to mix the horror & western genres which it doesn't do to any great effect. Have you ever wondered why there aren't more horror western hybrid films out there? Well, neither have I but if I were to ask myself such a question I would find all the answers in Ghost Town because it's not very good. The two genres just don't mix that well. There are plenty of clichés, on the western side of things there's the innocent townsfolk who are to scared to stand up to a gang of thugs who are terrorising them, the shoot-outs in the main street, saloon bars with swing doors & prostitutes upstairs & horror wise there's plenty of cobwebs, some ghosts, an ancient curse, talking corpses & a few violent kills. I was just very underwhelmed by it, I suppose there's nothing terribly wrong with it other than it's just dull & the two genres don't sit together that well. There are a few holes in the plot too, why did Devlin kidnap Kate? I know she resembled his previous girlfriend but how did he know that & what was he going to do with her anyway? We never know why this ghost town is full of ghosts either, I mean what's keeping them there & what caused them to come back as ghosts? Then there's the bit at the end where Devlin after being shot says he can't be killed only for Langley to kill him a few seconds later, I mean why didn't the bullets work in the first place?Director Governor does alright, there's a nice horror film atmosphere with some well lit cobweb strewn sets & the standard Hollywood western town is represented here with a central street with wooden buildings lining either side of it. I wouldn't say it's scary because it isn't, there's not much tension either & the film drags in places despite being only just over 80 odd minutes in length. Forget about any gore, there a few bloody gunshot wounds, an after the fact shot of two people with their throats slit & someone is impaled with a metal pole & that's it.I'd have imagined the budget was pretty small here, it's reasonably well made & is competent if nothing else. Credit where credit's due the period costumes & sets are pretty good actually. The acting is alright but no-ones going to win any awards.Ghost Town is a strange film, I'm not really sure who it's meant to appeal to & it certainly didn't appeal to me. Anyone looking for a western will be annoyed with the dumb horror elements while anyone looking for a horror film will be bored by the western elements. It's something a bit different but that doesn't mean it's any good, worth a watch if your desperate but don't bust a gut to see it.
dls-3 I remember seeing this movie on a tape with three other movies. A friend of mind had loaned me the tape for the weekend and I kept it for another week or so because I kept watching over and over and over this movie Ghost Town. It dragged me in so deep, I felt there was a personal message for me that I had to get before I could return the video to my friend.As you know it is a very interesting film that hops back and forth from present day to the eerie past when Devlin and his cronies ruled supreme in this town. It was of course up to our present day sheriff Langley to first of all rescue the lovely heroine and then in order to return to the present day, he had to kill Devlin.I think one of the great things about this movie was the characters. I feel that whoever chose the characters in this movie did a fantastic job because each of the actors and actresses were quite believable in their roles--no plastic acting.Maybe that was the thing that kept me watching that movie 12 times or more during the week I had borrowed my friend's video--the 'believability' of the film thanks to the great acting throughout.Very worthwhile watching!!!