The session: "Westerns with a Twist of Monster"
For this year's version of our session of Westerns, Keith is showing us four mashups: Westerns with monsters
As always, there may be spoilers here. And the trailer may be NSFW and/or NSFL.
Week 3: The Living Coffin (1959)
Directed by Fernando Mendez
My Impressions Going In:
Never heard of this one.
An old spirit is haunting a sleepy Mexican town, scaring away the residents.
Reaction and Other Folderol:
Almost twenty years ago, my family took a roadtrip from Anchorage, Alaska, to Inuvik, Northwest Territories. I remember particularly, when we stopped to eat in Dawson City, in the Yukon. The restaurant we stopped in had a creepily abandoned feel. Of course, it was mid September, and the tourist season was over, so there were very few customers. And years after that, we went on a driving tour of Centralia, Pennsylvania -- a small city that has been all but abandoned because of an underground fire that has been burning since 1962.
The Living Coffin reminded me of those travel experiences because of the creepily abandoned quality of the town -- especially the saloon. They clearly saved money by having a very small cast. It kind of fit with the whole conceit that the town is in the process of being abandoned, but had the result of making it feel like a stage-play. I think that feeling was also driven by the sets which had an oddly surreal quality.
I did enjoy the Scooby Doo quality of the plot, and the obvious references to Poe. But there was just too much downtime, so it failed to capture my attention.
The makeup was good, though.
Ratings
Me: 6.5
Bob-O: 8
Christina: 8.1
Ethan: 7
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