Truly Dreadful Film

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

A clerk (played by horror vet Brad Dourif) sets down in the old west for the night, but a bounty hunter (played by James Earl Jones) visits him wondering if he can join him for the night. We soon begin to get to know the two characters and some of their strong differences. They in turn share four "scary" stories to each other.Scary is in quotations, but because that is what they ain't. The first one is about an old man (Will Hare) who stumbles across a Native-American burial ground and a dying Native and its repercussions of doing so. The second one is about a traveling store clerk (Marc McClure) who comes across a pregnant woman who has been thrown out of her town. The third is about a man (William Atherton) who relocates to some new land with his family, only for them to find out a secret about him. The fourth and final story is about a hired gunman who experiences a haunting after his latest killing. Unfortunately for me none of these stories really work. They are either too short or fall off the cliff at the end.The best part of the movie and what does really work is the interaction between Dourif and Jones. If only the stories were a level above what they were I would recommend this one. I think they need more terror. I would recommend it though to any Brad Dourif or James Earl Jones fans. For perhaps they will see more in the movie than I did and maybe enough to make it an enjoyable experience for them.

This movie managed to sneak up on me and I have never forgotten it. Brad Dourif was his usual superb and James Earl Jones absolutely masterful (one of his best performances). Its just too bad cable providers and show selectors have not seen fit to provide it to subscribers and viewers looking for compelling film. Brad Dourif's acting prowess was confirmed in his role as "Doc" on HBO's Deadwood series. Do yourself a solid and chase this one down. The dark humor in GPT is golden and is frequently profound. I wish this was the pilot to a series but sadly it was a one off. Praise should also go to the writer and producer.

Coming in a close second behind "The Shadow of Chikara" and certainly the strangest picture to get made during the short-lived 90's revival of the Western movie genre, this refreshingly off-beat 18th century set omnibus oater rates as the finest horror-Western to ever grace celluloid, a fascinatingly unusual film which dips into America's rich, but largely (and shamefully) underexplored past with often hugely effective results.The remarkably strong wraparound segment concerns prissy intellectual city slicker Farley Deeds (a pleasantly low-key portrayal by the often over-the-top Brad Dourif), who's forced one night on the cold, lonely open prairie to either listen to or relate a quartet of spooky campfire stories in the less than prepossessing company of uncouth, vaguely menacing bounty hunter Morrison (a wonderfully ripe, robust, rip-snorting turn by the always great James Earl Jones).First tale: grouchy old cuss Lee Colby (amusingly essayed by grizzled character actor Will Hare, who also acted in the arrestingly oddball horror-Western doozy "Eyes of Fire") desecrates a sacrosanct Native American burial ground and promptly regrets it. Second yarn: a sweet young man (affable Marc McClure, who appeared in the equally underrated fright film anthology flick "After Midnight" around the same time) meets a lovely young woman (the gorgeous, raven-tressed, almond-eyed Michelle Joyner; Michael Rooker's doomed wife in "Cliffhanger") with a ... well, I don't want to spoil the deliciously nasty shock ending to this one. Watch and find out for yourself; it's sure to hit guys especially right where they live. Third story: a family of homesteaders must contend with a bloodthirsty lynch mob who want the sole man of among the beleaguered threesome to help them catch and subsequently hang an escaped slave. This particular tale is too sentimental and obvious to really work, although it boasts a strong performance from the under-appreciated William Atherton (the jerky TV reporter in the first two "Die Hard" movies) as a basically decent, but hateful man who's gamely struggling to control his more base impulses. Fourth anecdote: a sleazy gunslinger (marvelously played to the slimy hilt by Scott Paulin; the first victim of the rampaging mutant monster in the terrifically trashy "ALIEN" rip-off "Forbidden World") competes to be top dog in a tiny desert town and later regrets that he did.Capably directed and smartly written by novice filmmaker William Coe (who previously designed the posters for such features as "Back to the Future" and "Out of Africa"), with uniformly fine acting from a nicely varied cast, plenty of eerie atmosphere, a flavorsome recreation of the 1800's, and a welcome emphasis on vividly drawn characters and similarly colorful old-fashioned storytelling over any needless excess flash or pretense, "Grim Prairie Tales" ranks as a most rewarding and highly different kind of horror movie, one in which story and character are more important and meaningful than either cheap shocks or disgusting gore. The anxious, intriguing, masterfully developed and sustained rapport between Jones and Dourif, both in superior personable form, is extremely enjoyable and unexpectedly affecting (the film not only deals with the expert telling of four scary stories, but also delightfully details the gradual genesis of an unlikely, but sturdy friendship between two radically contrasting individuals). The spiky, frequently hilarious, insult-laden rat-a-tat-tat banter that Jones and Dourif heatedly exchange throughout is a tremendous source of rousing entertainment alone, highlighted by the sidesplitting moment a fuming Brad calls Big Jim "a corpulent old buzzard!" It's a small, but bright and sparkling little gem of a sleeper.

Grim Prairie Tales is an acclaimed film of bizarre anthology and spellbinding horror featuring an all star cast. Academy Award nominees James Earl Jones and Brad Dourif lead a cast including Scott Paulin (Turner & Hooch), Will Hare (Back to the Future), Marc McClure (Superman), Lisa Eichhorn (The Talent Mr. Ripley), William Atherton (Die Hard) and Michelle Joyner (Cliffhanger) to star in a tale of two pioneers who cross paths in a Western desert land and tell tales of both ghastly hauntings and supernatural tragedies. It's a low-buget film, but has some good quality of directing and acting. I especially liked the first and last stories the most.