I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

You won't be disappointed!

Not even bad in a good way

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Trying to resolve matters in a land-border dispute, a family's hiring of a strange gunslinger eventually causes them to realize he's the culprit behind a series of ghastly murders around town by draining women of blood and race to stop him before he completes his task.This is an overall curious and quite enjoyable effort. Basically this here turns out to be a cunning combination of Western and vampire horror, but for once the mixture is not a detriment to the other as they usually result in forsaking one part of the story for the other if the two chosen topics really have little in common with each other. Here, we get a typical Western about a ranch family involved in a border dispute with their neighbors who resorts to underhanded tactics to keep his side of the property without repercussions, involved in numerous shady deals with the authorities to keep himself in line and offers up plenty of shoot-outs, beatings and scenes of everyone wandering around on horse- back to fulfill that part of the storyline, and basically turns the script around by having the loner coming in to deal with the situation being a vampire. By still incorporating those tactics, where he resides in coffins, can't stay out in the sunlight for long periods of time and resorts to blood-drinking to carry out his orders all fall in line with known vampire lore, as well as the defense tactics used to stop his rampage that carries out on the outskirts of the story before being brought in by the land dispute where everything finally makes sense. The only real problems here is the last half, where the vampire far more often than necessary taunts the hero with long-winded speeches about humanity and faith of God, which really hurts his effectiveness as a villain since it all comes off so lame and stupid. Overall, though, it more than makes up for that one little flaw.Today's Rating/PG: Violence.

The combining of westerns with horror has not always made for great films. I mean, who can forget "Billy the Kid vs. Dracula" and "Jesse James meets Frankenstein's Daughter". The exception is "Curse of the Undead". This 1959 picture stars Eric Fleming as a frontier preacher who is confronted with a vampire in the form of a hired gun, portrayed with sinister, yet sympathetic overtones by Michael Pate.The plot has some holes in it. For example, Michael Pate's character commits suicide after murdering his brother, which in turn condemns him for all eternity as a vampire...I mean, I have never heard of this premise for a person becoming one of the "undead". Also, the vampire of this movie can walk around in the daylight with seemingly no ill effects, and everyone knows that vampires absolutely cannot be exposed to sunlight, or they will be destroyed.Despite these minor flaws, the movie actually has a good story and some good acting by Fleming as the preacher, Pate as the vampire/gunslinger, and Kathleen Crowley as the love interest caught between the two. I highly recommend this movie.

Typical of the low-budget B movies made during the 1950's, Curse of the Undead broke the mold by combining moviegoer's love of Westerns with the "new" Horror movie fans that thrived on such fare. Eric Fleming (Trailboss Gil Favor of Rawhide TV series), deserved better but Michael Pate as the gunfighter/vampire character, took his part and ran away with it...stole the movie from the other actors without even trying! This film had several memorable scenes, the one where he chases the preacher into the church is spooky, as is the one where he is seen on his black horse, rearing it up before killing the town Dr. Part of the reason (I think) why this movie rises above its level is the spooky and very dark, moody musical score. All in all, this is a good one to watch when you're tired of all the unnecessary gore that seem to be a staple of modern vampire films. The only thing I didn't like is that the vampire had no fangs, just normal teeth...oh well, I guess you can't have everything.

A black-clad, gaunt stranger (Michael Pate) arrives in town, becomes a farmhand for a pretty rancher (Kathleen Crowley), eventually turns out to be the vampire terrorizing the countryside. This really is a clever, moody piece, another well-done 1950s Universal-International terror film, featuring good performances, creepy music, and an astonishing climax.