It's the 1870s and tensions are running high in the small town of Rosewood. Most of the community are eager to attract investment from the railroad, but a corrupt local landowner has sworn to prevent it, since they'd have to take some of his land to do it. When his methods to keep out the railroad turn lethal, the locals appeal to a group of six gunslingers for aid and protection. Unfortunately, this is a case where the cure might well prove far more sinister than the disease ...
You know, "The Magnificent Seven, except the seven turn out to be vampires who plan to feed on the town after 'saving' it" is actually a pretty decent elevator pitch. And perhaps in other hands it could have been an entertaining film. Unfortunately, writer/director Shane Scott is not up to the task of delivering on the promise of the premise ... nor, it seems, of getting an even halfway decent performance out of any of his no-name cast.
Because make no mistake, pretty much every element of the execution of The Magnificent Dead is bad. The acting is bad, the lighting is bad, the dialogue is atrocious, and the special effects are a mixture of mediocre make-up (there's certainly nothing as elaborate or effective as the image on the DVD above) and basement-quality CGI. This is a bunch of grown-ups delivering a "horror" film arguably less competent, and definitely less entertaining, than Pathogen, which Emily Hagins wrote and directed when she was 12.
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