Y’all, this has some genuine cowpuncher lingo running like a tiny crick through the picture. The dialogue Servitto and De Luca put in A Town Called Purgatory has a ring to the ear as precise and pleasurable as the chimes of a pinball machine. The 19th-century palaver heard here evokes the spirit of cow skull anarchy that the western was minted for, with the pillars of civilization being bent into the shape of those brave enough to walk into the unknown with death at one’s elbow. And boy, can both of these guys deliver dialogue. De Luca was obviously born to star in westerns, as he inhabits the mythology onscreen with the familiarity of a worn gun belt. He is very believable as a gentleman who walks the line between good and evil, with the audience never knowing which side he will end up on.
When he determines that he now has a bone to pick, the hair will stand up on your arm and run away. Servitto’s character shares the same name as the most evil western villain of all time: Henry Fonda’s Frank in Leone’s Once Upon A Time In The West, and with good reason. Servitto’s Frank is from the same black abyss as Leone’s, playing him like a creature that has given up any sort of decency a human would have left. Some of the most skin-crawling moments come from seeing what Servitto does to lower your view of humanity even further.
“…some genuine cowpuncher lingo running like a tiny crick through the picture…”
Ah, but wait, there is so much more! The western tradition has always lived next to the horror genre, what with all the constant death raining down. A Town Called Purgatory has some of the best western horror I have seen. Not since 1999’s underseen masterpiece Ravenous has a filmmaker made the cemetery dance this hard in a horse opera. The pretty music it dances to was composed by Cazz Cerkez, whose pounding synth score delivers a sophisticated take on the 80s slasher sound. I am now a true believer in using electronic scores for westerns, as the juxtaposition takes it to a whole new frontier. Also, Kasiske’s skinwalker is a genuinely scary monster. I know everyone out there has seen plenty of scary monsters, but you haven’t seen one this scary-looking yet. Even if Dr. Freudstein and Pumpkinhead had a baby that grew up all wrong, it would not be as nasty-looking as this skinwalker.
The genius of combining a strong character-driven western with a monster movie is no boring bits. Yes, the monster is kept mostly offscreen until the third act, but instead of the other acts being filled with scientists in meetings, we have cowboys murdering each other. It is so much more engaging and even helped keep me on guard about what I was in for. And you would never guess the whole thing was shot in the no-name western city in Wollersdorf, Austria, because I never did. A Town Called Purgatory is a grand film that does both the western and horror genres proud. Servitto is one of those powerhouse filmmaking talents who has popcorn butter for blood, as this movie is like an extra-large popcorn with blood for butter.
For more information, visit the A Town Called Purgatory official website,
"…a grand film that does both the western and horror picture proud."
