Deadwood Park (2006/Cinema Epoch)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: C- Film: C-
The sad
thing about Eric Stanze’s Deadwood Park
(2006) is that it has a great idea about a haunted amusement park long closed,
with its ruins standing, even starting with the return a resident (William
Clifton) now all grown up. The corpses
of murdered children keep turning up, killing the park’s attendance, the legacy
of those deaths will catch up to all around.
After
visiting a surviving local drive-in, he revisits the area and it turns out the
place is haunted. Unfortunately, instead
of developing anything suspenseful, it goes into problematic flashbacks, never
explains why a federal investigation did not happen after the first dead child
is found and cannot figure out how to end after driving itself int0o a messy
corner. Too bad, because (once again)
with some restraint, this could have been impressive, but instead fails badly.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is good in color, with some good color
and detail, but the overabundance of bad black and white is a mess and in
addition to not knowing how to end this, makes it al the more a mess. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo has not
surrounds, shows its limits and is passable at best. Extras include a Music Video, commentary by
Stanze and outtake reel.
- Nicholas Sheffo
