Starring:  Robert Bear, Lillith Fields, Kane Hodder

Written by: Keith Suta, Matthew Taggart, and Andrew Wiest

Directed by: Andrew Wiest

Release date: February 9, 2009 (USA)

Rating: 2/10

It’s a battle of the guns in this horror tale of zombie cowboys and walking skeletons. Armed with bullets straight from hell, Frank, and his demonic posse of the undead, let loose on the small town of Weston, killing anyone who gets in their way of the one person they want most: Sheriff Logan Kane. Can the Sheriff, his slightly less incompetent brother Stuart, and Lillith, the pint sized gun shop owner, stop Frank and his demonic minions from wrecking havoc on the entire town? Or is their fate sealed in this epic battle between good and evil…

I genuinely admire these types of independent horror films because it’s interesting to see what filmmakers create with such ridiculously small budgets. Dead Noon was created with a whopping $4000, and that’s including having a big name in horror (Kane Hodder) in a supporting role. Don’t let this get your hopes up however, most of the scenes he wasn’t in were a bit hard to get through as a lot of this film played like a bad dream, the kind that causes you to wake up and go “What the fuck was that”.

Basically we start off with Hodder forcefully dragging some girl (who looks to have a severe case of oral herpes on her bottom lip) to a camp fire in an effort to tell her about the story of Frank (the reason for this gets acknowledged towards the end). I felt really hopeful the first 10 minutes because honestly everything was flowing smoothly. The acting was good, the dialogue between Hodder and the girl was very believable, and the general tone from the camera angles really pulled you in almost instantly.

However, once we break away and are taken INTO Frank’s story everything pretty much falls apart. You start to realize right away that this is a very low-budget film and therefore not a lot can be done in regards to the special effects…and acting. There are a lot of cheesy moments, my favourite being some random white guy in a barn going Jackie Chan on us during his escape from one of the demons (who looked a lot like Ghost Rider), but despite his best efforts to escape ends up getting killed anyways. And it’s not a simple death, oh no, the filmmaker really tried his best to pay homage to blood gushing scenes like the one in Army of Darkness and Nightmare on Elm Street. Too bad they were about 1000 gallons short, there was definitely some potential.

Other scenarios that caused me to lower my rating were scenes involving two random girls driving in a beat up truck towards town. We have no idea who these girls are, how they relate to any of the other characters, nor what their purpose is. I’m assuming there really is no point to them other than the need to have a higher body count. This would make sense…if we actually saw them die. Their so called “deaths” leave much for contemplation as they were never really finalized.

Also there is a bit towards the latter half that appears to be some sort of dream Logan’s wife has soon after being captured by Frank. It really doesn’t make any sense at all, and in fact reminded me a lot of The Ring. Just, random images of a woman standing by a cliff, a burning tree, some creepy looking little girl…..you get the point.

There are a few aspects I liked, one of which I mentioned at the beginning of my review, another comes in the form of Robert Bear. He plays our blood-thirsty, revenge seeking gunslinger Frank, and did a damn good job of it. My absolute favourite moment in the entire movie was the church scene, where Sheriff Logan tries to understand why Frank is coming after his blood for something his great-great grandfather did. The dialogue shared between him and Frank was so believable and well written.

Mr. Bear was definitely the standout in the entire film. He should consider a career in westerns because not only does he look great in the whole getup, but he also plays that sort of troubled outlaw so well; almost somewhat reminiscent of a young Clint Eastwood…..almost.

Overall the movie just didn’t quite make the cut for the so-bad-it’s-good type indie. Anyone who is a die-hard fan of Hodder might enjoy it for the few scenes he’s in, but this is definitely not something I would recommend rushing out to view.