RLJE Films has carved out a nice niche for itself within the horror genre, and their latest offering, ‘The Pale Door’, provides a unique western setting where wicked witches, who have evil intentions, cause terror.
According to the official synopsis, the Aaron B. Koontz film tells the story of: “After a botched train robbery, two brothers leading a gang of cowboys must survive the night in a ghost town inhabited by a coven of witches”.
The movie sets itself up in solid fashion with flashbacks but is otherwise weighed down by it’s slow moving pace out of the gate. Despite that, the film muscles through a tedious build by delivering a rewarding climb to the conclusion, and its a refreshing, and creative mixing of the timeless Western genre with the equally timeless legend of witches and their coven.
For those who like westerns, you’ll get your train robbery, western gangs (The Dalton Gang), and familiar old town settings. For those who gravitate more to the witchcraft element, you’ll get pure evil and brutality.
Where you may have trouble rolling with the movie in the opening 30-45 minutes, Koontz should be commended for his transition to pure horror, which flows almost effortlessly throughout the story, and seems to hit the mark in regards to timing. The cinematography gets kudos too, as they shot scenes and settings in such a manner that truly captured the mood, emotion, and the backdrops of the times.
If you can get through the slow start, the movie rewards you by providing a thrilling, refreshing, horror that picks up the pace and hits hard down the stretch to give you a satisfying horror experience.
