Review: Ghost Riders aka Ghostriders (1987)
What is it about regional horror movies that we find so compelling? Maybe it's because they're made outside the traditional Hollywood scene and offer a fresh perspective on old ideas from people who are--more often than not--a lot like us. Local actors replace movie stars, new landscapes stand in for the Southern California scenery that we know so well, and there's a hunger and drive from everyone involved because these low-budget offerings represent that one shot to get noticed. If everything works out, then maybe, just maybe , the filmmakers might get to do it again. Ghost Riders (also known as Ghostriders ) is a 1987 micro-budget genre movie that is equal parts horror, action, and western; it's a real oddity among regional filmmaking, with westerns not being a profitable genre in the mid-eighties and the western/ghost story pairing being a particularly risky proposition. The film begins in the 1880s as a preacher spearheads the lynching of a ruthless outlaw and his ...