DEAD IN TOMBSTONE (2013)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical*

There's the germ of a decent idea in this DTV "weird western," though the idea itself is nothing new and in many ways contradicts the Christian mythology of Satan's influence on Earth. Most Biblical accounts indicate that Satan wants evil to proliferate on Earth, the better to spite God. Therefore it seems counter-intuitive that His Infernal Majesty would do anything that decreases Earth's supply of evildoers.

Nevertheless, the idea of Satan empowering agents who go around harvesting criminals to send them to Hell has persisted in popular culture, at least since 1940, when Timely Comics unleashed one such agent, the original Black Widow. Sometimes there are variations: evil souls escape Hell and Satan's agent has to send them back, as in the 1998 teleseries BRIMSTONE. But DEAD IN TOMBSTONE doesn't bother to ring in any more logical setup.

The film does start off with what almost sounds like an ironic take on the prevalent mythos of the Wild West. The West was not an arena devoted to duels of good and evil, but rather, to conflicts between differing levels of evil. However, nothing in the story follows up on this potential. 

Guerrero de la Cruz (Danny Trejo) is a career outlaw who has led the Blackwater Gang on many a robbery. His sole virtue is that when we see him organize his gang to raid the bank of Tombstone, he tells his men-- including his rash half-brother Red (Anthony Michael Hall)-- that he wants them to pull off the crime with as little killing as possible. However, Red wants to lead the gang, and to that end he talks the other five owlhoots into backshooting their leader.

Down to hell goes Guerrero, and in the interests of budget, all we see of hell looks like a blacksmith's forge, occupied by Satan (Mickey Rourke), though he's billed in the credits as "The Blacksmith." Satan begins gratuitously torturing Guerrero, but by accident or design lets slip that he needs more evil souls to stoke his furnace. This concept is more in line with the evil acts of fairy-tale creatures like ogres, but this potential too is dropped. Guerrero makes a bet with Satan: in exchange for being returned to life, Guerrero will execute all six gang-members and send them to Satan's fires. Satan agrees, but only if the bandit-leader can kill all six in one day, and all by his own hand. If Guerrero fails, he returns to the service of the devil.

The avenger of Hell returns to Earth and proceeds to lay waste to the Blackwater Gang, naturally saving the worst traitor, half-brother Red, for the last. Guerrero gets unwanted aid from sexy sheriff's wife Calathea (Dina Meyer), who wants vengance for the gang's murder of her husband. This complicates Guerrero's quest to ace all six bandits himself, but as one might expect, he does show his inner hero by protecting the feisty femme. In the end, Guerrero kills all of his targets but loses his bet, so that he's consigned to continue as Satan's harvester.

TOMBSTONE is replete with many violent scenes of shooting and fighting, but none stand out. Trejo's performance as the accursed badass is sturdy but similarly unremarkable, while Hall and Meyer do their best with unrewarding characters. Despite the apparent setup for a sequel, it took another four years for Guerrero to get "dead again."