Sadly Over-hyped

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

watched a good one tonight, the first for the usual Halloween movie fest. Wasn't expecting that much, but "Deadwood Park" was very entertaining for such a low budget indie movie. Not much graphic violence, but just enough, and a little gore. But, great script, good acting, and well done. Highly recommended.

Deadwood Park looks promising to start with. The setting is great, a dilapidated town with an old abandoned fairground, a spooky little church and the protagonists childhood home which has been abandoned for some time. Sure the acting is a bit wooden but there's some interesting scenery and a bit of tension with the local sheriff to keep you entertained. Strange things start happening so you are all geared up for a ghost story in this creepy setting.But then, all of a sudden the writers seem to give up on the story they've been building up. Out go the spooky ghost bits and child abductions and in comes something which just doesn't fit at all. From then on the film drags and the ending is a meaningless shrug of the shoulders. Hey guys we filled the running time, thanks for watching.I really think that if they had stuck to one story and maybe allowed the characters to express some sort of surprise at the ghostly goings on rather than being totally unmoved by them this could have been a great little movie. As it stands it's halfway there but not really worth your time. I just can't believe they squandered the great locations, which really are the stars in this one.

I'm just an average citizen, who loves horror movies, as well as action, thrillers and some drama. Positive opinions 1st, then I'll list the negative:The basic storyline was good. I really liked how the writer mixed horror with mystery. I've seen other films that mix genres, and do a terrible job, or are just boring, because they're just the same old story. I thought this one was pretty original. The way the different time periods were mixed in was very good, much the same as "Highlander" worked. Although it seemed supernatural at first, the viewer will still wonder if that part is true, since the murders had not continued (at least until the truth is revealed near the end)Camera work was pretty good. The overall acting was acceptable for this type of genre; Maybe with a few tweaks and better direction, the viewer would be so riveted in the show, that other aspects, such as the scare scenes would provoke more feelings of fright, than I felt, when I watched this. I did think Lane did a very good job, though some of his dialogue didn't seem to fit the character. I thought Luscri did the best acting in this film. Her character was very believable. I loved the location, and scenery. I live in Missouri, and many times while watching, I was taken back to my youth. I think the crew did a great job capturing the feel and look of each era presented during the film.Neutral thoughts: Although the camera work was good, there were several points that I started to lose interest. I don't know what the director was thinking, by not cutting a lot of the scenery shots from the film. It would've kept me more focused on the movie, if that had been done. I don't think it would've hurt the film by cutting 5-10 minutes of just panning shots. Negative points: As for the acting, as I said, overall it was OK. The main char. could've been much better. But, not being in the movie biz, I can't say whether this facet was due to Clifton's abilities, or if it was the chemistry between the film crew and actors.I think some of the writing could've been much better, such as making it more believable that Luscri's character would have knowledge and access to all types of evidence and articles, pertaining to the murders. After all, even though she's the sheriff's daughter, it would seem pretty hard to believe that she knows about interviews or evidence that her father had kept secret for over 25 years. My main disappointments in the movie were: the "scarey" parts. Several times, I started to brace for the main scare in certain scenes, only to be left hanging, or wondering why it wasn't better done. The other part was the evil preacher, even though I loved the idea of how his character evolved. I ended up rolling my eyes, during the fight scene, when he was unable to over-power Jake, after previous points in the fight, where it showed him hurling either Jake or the sheriff into a wall, or across the room with, what I think is an accepted fact of vampyre myth, great strength.I did enjoy this film, yet I feel that it could have become a very big hit or even a staple in the cult classics world, if either the direction or production were better and some tweaks were done with the script.

Its not often I feel compelled to write a review and generally when I do its normally negative so it gives me great pleasure to type these positive words.For all the trailer park/multiplex indie haters I'm not associated with the production of this film, I'm from the North East of England.Deadwood Park is not without its flaws, on occasion the acting is a little amateurish and some of the effects are a little cheesy, personally I think the director should not have used visual effects for the ghosts. That said because of what has been achieved on an obviously tiny budget I think its unfair to focus on the few small bad points especially as they in no way detract from the overall enjoyment.Eric Stanze has made a film that rarely puts foot wrong in terms of execution, story and plotting. Although the ideas and themes are well worn (MR James, Stephen King and possibly Ringu in terms of structure) fresh life is injected into them through engaging and largely excellent performances, atmospheric locations, fantastic pacing and simply beautiful cinematography.Deadwood Park succeeds through the total commitment and passion of all those involved and its becoming increasingly rare to see such an effective American film let alone a horror that is not a remake of a Japanese classic or one that relies on cheap shocks and expensive gore.For me personally this film will prove a great influence in my own cinematic endeavours, now where's that firewire cable.