(Ghost/Zombie/Camp) 5*****skulls

*Blood* *Strong Language* *Sexual Situations* *Nudity* *Violent* *Gory*

1989/Color/96 Min./Vidmark Entertainment & Ghostown Film Management (Pty) Ltd. & New World Pictures & Distant Horizon & Anant Singh/Rated R

Director...........William A. Levey (Blackenstein, Committed)

Screenplay.....Michael O'Rourke

Music..............Barry Fasman & Dana Walden

Producer.........Anant Singh

Director of Photography..

Executive Producer.....Sudhir Pragjee

Special Effects............Glyn McKay

Dramatis Personae

Matt...................Ron Pallillo (Committed, Welcome Back Kotter)

Josey.................Abigail Wolcott

Pam...................Petrea Curran

Chuck................Evan J. Klisser

Bobby...............Joanne Ward

Lucas Carlisle...Carel Tichardt

Buzz.................Frank Notaro (Lethal Ninja)

Zack..................Lance Vaughan

Jonas................Victor Mellaney

Waitress 1955....Lynda Powell

Waitress 1989....Kimberleigh Stark

Critique: The ghost story theme is a bit hard to keep up--and what for? Why not just tell the story straight after the initial frame. The acting is particularly troublesome Lucas' acting is just embarrassing and his physical appearance is uncomfortably reminiscent of as Gomez Adams. The camp/jocular atmosphere is, as always, simply stupid. Try to get some cheap laughs with a horror movie, and inevitably what you get is just a mess. Perhaps the real problem is that we don't work up much interest in any of the characters, and particularly none in the story. After a while, the bad directing and poor acting will surely wear down the most patient viewer. We could have done without Josey's glowing eyes and palms, and the laser beam-crystal is one of the worst effects we have seen.

Plot Summary: Chuck tells Pam and Bobby some rather unimaginative ghost stories. Then Bobby tells the story of the hellgate hitchhiker. We're back in the fifties. Some bikers head into as roadside dive and send a few of the patrons through the washing machine. When Josey walks in, she really gets the boy's attention. They put her on the back of the bike and head off into the hills. The bikers take her to what is now a ghost town called Lucas Carlisle's Hellgate. There Josey is smashed into a wall by the bikers, but not before her father, who lived there, killed one and injured another. Bobby says that though some say Josey was killed, others say she lives out on the road luring unsuspected drivers into her grasp. Their friend asks for directions, and people warn him against going to Hellgate. Bobby tells us that Old Jonas who worked for Josey's father found something in the abandoned mine: a mysterious crystal capable of bringing a dead bat back to life. Jonas brings the crystal to Lucas who spends his days thinking only about his lost daughter. Lucas looks at a photograph of his daughter, thinking to bring her back to life. They watch as it brings a stuffed turtle back to life. However, the turtle becomes a biter. Soon it sends a beam at Jona and he dies terribly. Soon Lucas had the crystal under control and raises Josey up from the dead. Josey has some powers and causes the car to malfunction. However, when he picks her up, the car functions again. They head into Hellgate. Josey invites him into her father's mansion. Once inside, Josey starts laying the seduction on Matt. Matt arrives a bit shaken but soon enters into the festivities of the weekend. They head off to the diner and then Matt has an encounter with a surviving biker and they head off to hellgate. The foursome heads into the cemetery and it is intimated that the souls of the dead miners are the source of the trouble. After that it's into the heart of town. Matt has the vague idea of saving Josey from some vaguely perceived danger. Inside, they find a dance hall populated with dancers and Matt sees a naked Josey, though the others don't see her. Pretty soon the ghosts start emerging from the buildings. Carlisle takes the keys which they cleverly left in their jeep, and they are effectively trapped. Chuck finds the keys for a moment, but quickly loses his head when he sees Carlisle. When Bobby is too scared to move, Matt and Pam leave her in the saloon and head out into ghostland where the slapstick is just starting.