[Cowboy Killer]
Plot:A cowboy from the old west strolls into a small town for one last hurrah causing havoc and forcing locals to take their own action. Roy Thompson, a cowboy from the old west has ventured across the country and set up camp in a small town. This Midwestern drifter searches for a genteel lady to accompany him in one last hurrah. "Every man for himself, and treat the ladies with respect," is his motto, but Roy loses his sanity somewhere along the dusty trail, and his imagination becomes a runaway steed.

Homecoming bound teenagers, an innocent mother, her vulgar son, and a town drunk are a few of the locals that bite the dust due to Roy’s hand. A crowd of people hunt Roy for his wrongdoings. From two disgruntled ex cops, a couple of cable guys, a high school jock, an old man, a serial killer, a stripper, a bartender, and a waitress are all going to take the law into their own hands before Roy can cause any more havoc! Roy’s in for the showdown of his life before he rides off into that sunset!

Cast:Paul Bailey, David L. Buckler, Chris Kennedy.

My Thoughts:Creative effort.

Review:So one day, I get a screener DVD in the mail of an indie-exploitation horror flick called "Cowboy Killer". I had honestly never heard of this film until I received the screener. The pic puts forth an interesting "what if?" scenario. What if...a slasher film was made, where instead of the killer being a teenager in a costume, or some undead guy or gal...it was an easy-going cowboy? Who just went around picking off people who pissed him off or rubbed him the wrong way? Similar to Angela Baker from the "Sleepaway Camp" movies, and her credo of people who do her and others wrong bite the dust.

Only in the case of "CK"....it's people who do cowboy Roy the wrong way bite the dust. The films opening has Roy offering to pick up a girl who is waiting for her boyfriend to take her to the dance. The girl accepts Roy's offer, but becomes concerned when she realizes that the direction he's driving in isn't close to where she wants to go at all. Roy eventually ends up killing the girl, and when the boyfriend and his friends come looking for Roy...he "smokes" them...literally, using a cowboy revolver. But one of the victims survives, and ends up in the hospital...managing to muster up enough strength to give his testimony to the police who have been hot on the trail of the cowboy killer for some time now.

Oddly enough, everytime Roy kills someone...they become a part of a mental fantasy of his. This gives the viewer a sense of just how screwed up Roy is. The film basically has Roy going around town, and bumping off people who anger him through mistreatment, or various insults. Roy doesn't fit in very well in this town, which is ironic considering it's total small town USA. But Roy's cowboy garb earns him alot of trash-talk from the locals with such insults as "gunsmoke", "redneck", etc. being tossed at him constantly by those who he encounters. So he responds by delivering swift cowboy-styled justice to his detractors via bashing them to death with a car hood, impaling them with a shovel, lopping their heads off, bashing them over the head with bottles, or just good ole' fashioned gun play.

Roy eventually meets a Kindred spirit in a bald serial killer of females who talks funny, and Roy sees potential in him to be a real cowboy...just like Roy. But eventually the female mistreatment by his new comrade rubs Roy the wrong way, so Roy decides to dispose of him in the clever method of a frame job. "Cowboy Killer" is certainly one of the more interesting horror films I've had the privledge of seeing. It's certainly a low-budget effort, but the story is sprinkled with enough gore, dark humor, and funny characters and happenings to make the movie rise above it's shoe-string budget.

It's also got some exploitation overtones to it dealing back to the days of Grindhouse cinema and such. The characters are also so outrageous that you just can't help but laugh and be entertained. There's one scene where Roy approaches a woman in a movie theater. The woman lets Roy know she wants nothing to do with him, and is waiting for her husband to return. Roy obliges, and walks away...but subtley watches the woman as she watches the movie. Then, after the film is over...and her husband has yet to return (funny thing about that eh?), she enters the parking lot...only to be confronted by Cowboy Roy, who offers to help her fix her car.

This of course results in the womans demise, but it just speaks to how outrageous the film is. Even in the normal slasher film setting, the character should've suspected the Cowboy for the disappearance of her husband. But because the film doesn't take itself seriously at all, the characters are all just sitting ducks for Cowboy Roy who is so polite and seems to mean so much well, that they suspect him of being capable of harming them about as mcuh as a lion would suspect a mouse of being capable of harming it. But when Roy drops that infamous line..."You're in for a damn treat."...you just know something bad is about to happen.

Roy doesn't skate the entire film however, as along with the police, he also picks up more enemies as the film progresses. His cowboy ways may get him only so far, but thanks to the outbursts of violence, the film has Roy being pursued by two guys from the cable company, a stripper, a strip club waitress, a bouncer, and then the serial killer he double-crossed and the boyfriend from the beginning of the film, who wants some payback of his own.

Which is the genius of the movie really...it's a film where the victims finally fight back. Roy gets his share of kills, but the film concludes with Roy finally having to come face to face with his victims and friends of his victims who are hopping mad about Roy's killing spree, and plan to end him once and for all. ''Cowboy Killer" is insane, ridiculous, crazy, outrageous, and all of those things. And that's at the heart of it's charm. The film is truly exploitation horror at it's finest.

Positives:Good performance by Paul Bailey as Cowboy Roy, gory and funny kills, great humor, and a good ending.

Negatives:It's hard to get past the shoestring budget in some scenes.

Overall:Three out of four stars.





( Talk about it in the Forums!)



( Back to the main page)