The Pale Door (2020)

What to Expect

"And travellers now within that valley,              
Through the red-litten windows, see            
Vast forms that move fantastically              
To a discordant melody;            
While, like a rapid ghastly river,              
Through the pale door,            
A hideous throng rush out forever,              
And laugh --but smile no more." - Edgar Allan Poe

The concept behind The Pale Door is an interesting one. You have some outlaw cowboys who rob a train expecting to find gold when instead they find a sweet young girl chained up in a chest with a Hannibal Lecter mask strapped to her face. One of the outlaws gets shot and the only path to help is through some mystery village the girl comes from. The village, of course, is not what it seems to be. Turns out, the village is home to a coven of witches who have no intention of healing up these cowboys and sending them on their way.

Everything works up to this point. And then they reveal the witches. The village is home to a coven of witches who are, well, literally witches. Not women into witchcraft, I'm talking real witches with long black hair and long warty noses. Everything but the broomstick. Nothing will pull you out of a horror movie faster than watching Wizard of Oz witches running around for 90 minutes.