Starring Zachary Knighton, Devin Druid, Stan Shaw, Bill Sage, Melora Walters, Noah Segan, Pat Healy, Tina Parker, Natasha Bassett, Darryl Cox and Jennifer Rader. Written by Cameron Burns, Aaron B. Koontz and Keith Lansdale. Directed by Aaron B. Koontz, produced by Cameron Burns, Roman Dent and James Norrie.
Paper Street Pictures/Storyteller Media/BondIt Media Capital/Title Media.

After a member of his gang dies during a gun duel, Duncan (Knighton) begrudgingly allows his nice guy brother Jake (Druid) to make up the numbers for an upcoming train robbery. The outlaws (rather ruthlessly) kill all the Pinkertons guarding a locked chest in one of the carriages… but there’s no cash or gold inside it, instead there’s a young woman called Pearl (Bassett). This girl explains that she was abducted, and she tells the gang there’ll be a big reward if they take her back home, to a place called Potemkin. The outlaws decide this is the only way they can make any money now, so they head for this out of the way township. But they need to hurry, as their leader Duncan has been badly wounded and he’s in urgent need of medical attention. Once they do reach Potemkin, the place seems to be deserted at first, but Pearl leads the outlaws to a brothel, which is packed with friendly prostitutes. But these working ladies are not what they seem to be…

THE PALE DOOR really struggles at the beginning to properly paint a convincing picture of the time and place the story is meant to be set in. There’s a one-on-one gunfight scene, for instance, that in no way looks like it’s happening back in the late 1800s. It actually resembles something you’d see at a wild west historical re-enactment event. It just ain’t very convincing, pardner. I’m assuming that cash was really tight during the filming of these earlier sequences, but the filmmakers must’ve gotten themselves a little more money later on, as the movie does improve if you stick with it.  

And the point at which the enjoyment levels of this film ratchet upwards occurs when the secret of Potemkin (which is kind of like a horror film version of Brigadoon) is finally revealed: all the feminine denizens of the brothel are, in actuality, ancient witches! And they’re not just your normal, average witches – these are blackened-skinned, crone-faced, scampering hags. They’re great! These hook-nosed, pointy-chinned occult harridans can defy gravity as they scuttle upside down on the ceiling, they frequently zip about in an animalistic fashion on all fours, and bullets don’t seem to keep ’em dead for long!

With better direction from Aaron B. Koontz, and an injection of additional funding, THE PALE DOOR might have had a chance of becoming a much more memorable horror-action-western. Maybe my expectations had been set higher than they should’ve been because I’d spotted Joe R. Lansdale (BUBBA HO-TEP, COLD IN JULY) credited as one of the film’s executive producers, though perhaps he was involved in view of the fact his son Keith is one of the writers. As it is, the quality of the acting varies a lot (Devin Druid has a cool-sounding name, but his thespian skills ain’t so hot), and better lighting in some of the scenes definitely would’ve helped matters. But, hey, the film (which was partly shot in Rollins Creek Old West Town, located outside of Guthrie, Oklahoma) does manage to gradually become better and better as it progresses, thanks to a satisfying score from Alex Cuervo, the inclusion of folk horror-style costumes that mix long cloaks with a variety of horned animal skulls, and a novel death scene involving a crow emerging beak-first from a victim’s bloody mouth.

There’s a topsy-turvy sequence in a church, which involves one of the outlaws being mysteriously compelled to mutilate himself, a fleeting deluge of blood, plus several Puritan-era flashbacks, and two burning-at-the-stake scenes (which are obligatory for witch-themed flicks, right?)   

The way in which the gang members brutally murder the Pinkerton detectives during the locomotive robbery (including some spurs-in-the-mouth violence) hardly makes these people an appealing bunch to root for (only Jake is not a die-hard killer), but attempts are made to garner sympathy for the outlaws once they come under threat in Potemkin, and some of the heartfelt melodrama between brothers Duncan and Jake featured in the film’s later stages is not totally without merit, aided as it is by Cuervo’s music. But, let’s be honest, it’s definitely the confrontations with the swarms of grimy, raggedy, semi-undressed, burnt-bodied witches that are the standout portions of this production, including one shot where a witch lurches out of a puddle of blood during a downpour. The outlaws-vs-witches-in-a-brothel set piece is without doubt the movie’s best sequence, so lets spare a moment to acknowledge the contributions made by Krista Perry, Shannon Beshears and Jennifer Rader: they were the film’s ‘Stunt witches’!

Let’s finish with another look at one of the skull-faced costumes worn by the witches…