Left for Dead

A combination of horror and western, Left for Dead's borderline experimental filming techniques, bizarre storyline, and low budget create a very strange final product that may only appeal to a few people.

I'm a sucker for a few of the elements that make up Left for Dead—it's got a great Spanish-sounding guitar soundtrack, a grim tale of revenge, and a deeply messed up but kick-ass heroine that isn't afraid to go down shooting.  The villain of the piece is actually pretty cool as well.

Unfortunately there are a number of problems that nearly killed the film for me right from the start. The storyline is about a bunch of whores that murder an entire town after one of them is dumped by a preacher who was having an affair with her. The preacher foreswears god and returns as an undead gunslinger, bound to the ghost town until he gets his revenge.  The concept is interesting—although why the whores react this way to the rejection is never really addressed—but the way the story is layed out from the start in a series of text paragraphs isn't ideal. The story isn't explained much more than that until quite a bit further into the movie, either.

The thing that irritated the hell out of me and almost caused me to stop watching the movie early on is the near constant use of freeze-frames, slow-motion, and other annoying video techniques. Applied in moderation these techniques are great, but that's not the case here. For a low budget film— especially one helmed by Albert Pyun—Left for Dead has some nice cinematography that makes good use of the Argentinian locations. Unfortunately the incredibly aggressive editing is so ever-present for at least the first half of the film that it almost feels like some kind of experimental film. That said, they either toned it down later in the film or I got used to it and eventually it bothered me less.

The story also becomes more out fleshed later in the movie and the characters are given more depth. Despite my intense dislike for the film up to the halfway point, by the time it had finished I kind of liked it.

Left for Dead has a lot of violence and low-budget gore.  The story is extremely dark, very few of the characters are likable, and everyone is lowdown as well as quite literally dirty. It's very rough around the edges, filmed in a questionable but distinct style, and I think the story could have used a thorough re-write. Despite all that I think I'll watch it again sometime. It might not be good, but it did have me thinking about it the next day.

I can't honestly recommend this film; I don't think most people would enjoy it. If you find the concept intriguing I suggest renting it if you can.