Grim Prairie Tales (1990)

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.

Brad Dourif and James Earl Jones get together for this horror western omnibus to snarl at each other over a campfire, pausing now and then to mouth off subtext about storytelling (Jones plays the brutish bounty hunter who knows a scary story or three, Dourif is the learned schoolteacher who asks him if stories can be vehicles for more than just thrills). Every time the movie strays from the campfire into a story it becomes tedious because the only kind of deadly these short stories are is deadly dull. Thankfully they're all pretty short so it's never dull for long. Watching two actors who like to chew scenery and spit it back out have at it makes me feel a little warm. I don't want to be too harsh onthis because, truth be told, horror anthology type films are never really meant to be cutting edge horrifying. Their primary means of expression is quiet spooks about something everyone understands is made up around the fire or comes from hearsay, and there's something nostalgic involved, the rosy glow of it, like one hankers down close to a fire and listens to others exchange stories not only for the stories told but also the pleasure of listening to them next to a fire. Horror westerns are few and far between and like most of them, this is mainly a horror film, until the last segment where sixshooters are drawn out and we get shootouts in dusty empty streets.

Blustery bounty hunter James Earl Jones and jittery eastern tenderfoot Brad Douriff share a campfire on the prairie and swap horror stories, some of the supernatural variety while others are all too natural.This is a low budget but ambitious and atmospheric horror western, worth a look for fans of either genre, though some fans of traditional westerns might not be amused.The vignettes are great but the wraparound with Jones and Douriff is so entertaining that the stories they tell pale in comparison.Other than Jones and Douriff, the best performance in the film is by William Atherton as a frontier dad with a dark secret.

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.