ATTENTION! ATTENTION! North American Motion Pictures, the distributor of Ghosts of Goldfield on home video, would like you to know that this cheap 2006 production stars someone who was in the cast of Twilight. His name is Kellan Lutz, and the distributor would also like you to know that he appeared in the recent redux of Prom Night.

These facts are reiterated no less than four different times on the DVD cover art; the front has Lutz's name and his Twilight credit above the title along with a quote from Stuart Alson of Independent Film Quarterly about Lutz, while the back reprints said quote (!!!), with the films highlighted, and then, right underneath, we're told - yet again - that it stars Lutz and that he appeared in Twilight and Prom Night.

Yeesh. Talk about overkill.

Now, I don't have anything against Kellan Lutz, nor do I have an axe to grind against Twilight or Prom Night (though the latter does have an army of detractors). However, this type of marketing, especially for a movie that was shot a couple years ago and only now is seeing the light of day, smacks of desperation. Shameless glorification of someone's association with a much bigger project in order to sell a low budget production is what it is, and Ghosts of Goldfield does it more so than just about anything DVD Talk has sent me to review since The Attic tried to capitalize on Mary Lambert's name a year and a half ago.

In any case, Kellan Lutz plays Chad in Ghosts of Goldfield. Chad's a nondescript nice guy who likes perky Julie (Marnette Patterson), a college student working on a thesis about ghosts, or maybe working on a Discovery Channel special (the film's a bit jittery on the motive). Julie arranges for Chad and three other young twenty-somethings - kleptomaniac Carrie, prankster Mike, and shades-wearin' Dean - to check out a haunted hotel in the middle of nowhere in Nevada. Their vehicle inconveniently breaks down in the desert, and the intrepid quintet has to hike the rest of the way to their destination. Cell phones do work, as shown later in the movie, but it doesn't occur to anyone to call AAA. In any case, after a brief sojourn at a graveyard, the gang makes it to the hotel, where they meet Roddy Piper, the old wrestler who once starred in John Carpenter's They Live (anybody remember that one?), and the angry ghost of Elizabeth, searching for her baby who was killed many decades earlier. Typical horror hokum ensues.

I was ready to completely write off Ghosts of Goldfield during the first half of the film. The acting was stilted, with dialogue coming off unnaturally lifeless - the gang's conversation as their vehicle dies, for example, is thoroughly strained and unconvincing. The premise, from writers Brian O. McMahon and Dominic Biondi, is tired and clichéd. And, ultimately, everything seemed low budget and dumb, especially Piper's thoroughly laughable fake sideburns in flashback scenes. However, like Carnivorous, the only other fright flick distributed by North American Motion Pictures I've seen, Ghosts of Goldfield did grow on me. I'm not saying the second half gets better, but the movie is so earnest in its goofiness that it becomes funny, in a Mystery Science Theater 3000 kind of way. Schlocky scenes of unconvincing gore and thoroughly mindless acts on the part of the inane secondary characters help move things along.

I'm not recommending this movie per se, but it's one of those late-night cheap and bad horror flicks that are ripe for riffing. There's an audience for these stinkers, and they know who they are. Rent it, if you feel so compelled.

The DVD

Video:

North American Motion Pictures gives Ghosts of Goldfield an anamorphic widescreen presentation. To be honest, the image doesn't look all that great. Film noise is present throughout, details are definitely lacking, and colors are only so-so.

Sound:

The lone audio track is an uninspired Dolby Digital 2.0 affair. Dialogue is fairly clear, for the most part, but that's about all that can be said for it. No subtitles appear to be available.

Extras:

Trailers precede the main menu for Dark Reel, Baseline Killer, and Carnivorous. They don't seem accessible via the menu system, but a link does exist for the trailer to Ghosts of Goldfield.

The only other extra is a Stills Gallery with some shots of the cast.

Final Thoughts:

Kellan Lutz's ridiculously over-hyped appearance aside, Ghosts of Goldfield is a cheap and bad horror movie with little to offer in the scares department. However, it's earnest enough to warrant some audience participation in the form of Mystery Science Theater 3000-style riffing. Rent this turkey, but only if you feel so compelled.

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