I’m giving this movie a higher rating than I probably should, given that it earns some creativity points for having an original story. What I had hoped would be a coll, action-western-horror movie ended up being more of a moral tale involving people doing other wrong, people wanting revenge, people redeeming themselves … In a way, the mood through Left for Dead felt like that of Candyman at times, only not anywhere near as cool. The biggest problem with this movie is that its poorly acted and the Mobius character could have been so much cooler, but low-budget’s tend to have that effect on a movie.

Left for Dead tells the story of Clementine, who is searching for her husband that abandoned her and her unborn child. Along her journey, she has a run in with a group of women who are also searching for Blake, Clem’s husband, as one of the women claims he wronged her. Their pursuit leads them to the ghost town of Amnesty, where legend says Mobius resides, awaiting vengeance against the prostitute that wronged him. The women chase Blake into the town, but they soon find out that Mobius is very real and begins picking them off, one by one. While the vengeance killing proceeds, the story further develops and unfolds revealing all the twists and secrets behind the characters’ connections to each other, resulting in an ending of bittersweet redemption for Blake and Clementine.

Left for Dead was directed by Albert Pyun … no stranger to bizarre, controversial movies and movies that garner poor reviews. However, he does have something of a cult following. I think what bothered me most about this film is that there was just too much dialogue, of which most of it was horrible, and not nearly enough action and/or horror suspense. If it weren’t for the movie having an interesting plot, I’m not sure I could have finished watching Left for Dead. Had this film had a bigger budget, I would have likely found a film with better acting and special effects. From someone who’s no stranger to watching cheesy, low-budget b-movies, I recommend this movie only for the concept and not for the execution.

Tags | albert pyun, Horror Western, left for dead