Overrated

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

This movie managed to sneak up on me and I have never forgotten it. Brad Dourif was his usual superb and James Earl Jones absolutely masterful (one of his best performances). Its just too bad cable providers and show selectors have not seen fit to provide it to subscribers and viewers looking for compelling film. Brad Dourif's acting prowess was confirmed in his role as "Doc" on HBO's Deadwood series. Do yourself a solid and chase this one down. The dark humor in GPT is golden and is frequently profound. I wish this was the pilot to a series but sadly it was a one off. Praise should also go to the writer and producer.

Coming in a close second behind "The Shadow of Chikara" and certainly the strangest picture to get made during the short-lived 90's revival of the Western movie genre, this refreshingly off-beat 18th century set omnibus oater rates as the finest horror-Western to ever grace celluloid, a fascinatingly unusual film which dips into America's rich, but largely (and shamefully) underexplored past with often hugely effective results.The remarkably strong wraparound segment concerns prissy intellectual city slicker Farley Deeds (a pleasantly low-key portrayal by the often over-the-top Brad Dourif), who's forced one night on the cold, lonely open prairie to either listen to or relate a quartet of spooky campfire stories in the less than prepossessing company of uncouth, vaguely menacing bounty hunter Morrison (a wonderfully ripe, robust, rip-snorting turn by the always great James Earl Jones).First tale: grouchy old cuss Lee Colby (amusingly essayed by grizzled character actor Will Hare, who also acted in the arrestingly oddball horror-Western doozy "Eyes of Fire") desecrates a sacrosanct Native American burial ground and promptly regrets it. Second yarn: a sweet young man (affable Marc McClure, who appeared in the equally underrated fright film anthology flick "After Midnight" around the same time) meets a lovely young woman (the gorgeous, raven-tressed, almond-eyed Michelle Joyner; Michael Rooker's doomed wife in "Cliffhanger") with a ... well, I don't want to spoil the deliciously nasty shock ending to this one. Watch and find out for yourself; it's sure to hit guys especially right where they live. Third story: a family of homesteaders must contend with a bloodthirsty lynch mob who want the sole man of among the beleaguered threesome to help them catch and subsequently hang an escaped slave. This particular tale is too sentimental and obvious to really work, although it boasts a strong performance from the under-appreciated William Atherton (the jerky TV reporter in the first two "Die Hard" movies) as a basically decent, but hateful man who's gamely struggling to control his more base impulses. Fourth anecdote: a sleazy gunslinger (marvelously played to the slimy hilt by Scott Paulin; the first victim of the rampaging mutant monster in the terrifically trashy "ALIEN" rip-off "Forbidden World") competes to be top dog in a tiny desert town and later regrets that he did.Capably directed and smartly written by novice filmmaker William Coe (who previously designed the posters for such features as "Back to the Future" and "Out of Africa"), with uniformly fine acting from a nicely varied cast, plenty of eerie atmosphere, a flavorsome recreation of the 1800's, and a welcome emphasis on vividly drawn characters and similarly colorful old-fashioned storytelling over any needless excess flash or pretense, "Grim Prairie Tales" ranks as a most rewarding and highly different kind of horror movie, one in which story and character are more important and meaningful than either cheap shocks or disgusting gore. The anxious, intriguing, masterfully developed and sustained rapport between Jones and Dourif, both in superior personable form, is extremely enjoyable and unexpectedly affecting (the film not only deals with the expert telling of four scary stories, but also delightfully details the gradual genesis of an unlikely, but sturdy friendship between two radically contrasting individuals). The spiky, frequently hilarious, insult-laden rat-a-tat-tat banter that Jones and Dourif heatedly exchange throughout is a tremendous source of rousing entertainment alone, highlighted by the sidesplitting moment a fuming Brad calls Big Jim "a corpulent old buzzard!" It's a small, but bright and sparkling little gem of a sleeper.

It's true, none of the stories told in this strange campfire chat are particularly scary. Jones' tales of vengeful Indians, mysterious pregnant drifters, and undead gunslingers fail to chill the marrow, with only the middle tale of the three providing a certain "gross-out" factor. Dourif's single tale of family and bigotry shows true horror can lie not in the supernatural but in everyday life.However, it's the play-off between these two great actors that gives the greatest joy in this film. The contrast (and unlikely rapport) between prim clerk Dourif and grizzled bounty hunter Jones - the latter playing against type in a way that'll surprise those used to his supporting roles in, say, the Jack Ryan films - makes them a "buddy" pairing to rival Riggs and Murtaugh. Give them their own series!

The pleasure of the horror anthology is that of brevity. No story can really out-stay its welcome or be forced into unnecessary padding. And if one episode fails to work, never mind, there will be another one along in a minute.James Earl Jones and Brad Dourif are both excellent as the contrasting storytellers and make the linking storyline into a highlight itself. Their tales are a mixed bunch. The opener about an Indian curse is rather slight. However the second tale about a helpful young man and a mysterious pregnant girl finishes on such a disturbing, horrific note that the viewer might not recover for the rest of the film! Especially if they're male. Definitely it is the moment that will be talked about afterwards. Deliberately, the third story concerns a more cerebal horror. A girl discovers a shocking truth about the father she idolises. Yet it emerges as probably the most satisfying tale of the night with a haunting punchline. Finally the concluding tale of vengeance beyond the grave is fair, its highlight being an animated nightmare sequence.The Western trappings bring a welcome original atmosphere to these Tales from the Crypt refugees, making this a worthwhile diversion for the jaded horror fan.