Wednesday, October 11, 2017

Grim Prairie Tales

Grim Prairie Tales is a 1990 western horror anthology film with four tales told around the isolated campfire. James Earl Jones comes upon a skittish eastern-bound Brad Dourif huddled over a lonely campfire, and gradually the stories unfold. It's a bit awkward, but it's fine enough if you like anthology films.



The L.A. Times says it is "is too slight to be able to recommend it, but it does have its moments." The NYT has a negative review. Time Out says, "The four tales are ingeniously varied (and intelligently keyed to the character of the teller and the situation around the camp-fire); but it's the writing of the framing story and the two lead performances that make the film so special." Moria says, "It certainly uses a much more substantial framing story than the average anthology film. Indeed, for once –perhaps the only time ever in an anthology film– the framing story is better than the stories it holds together. The sequence also has two of filmdom’s great over-actors, James Earl Jones and Brad Dourif, on fine form as they play off one another."

6 comments:

  1. I haven't time to watch this now but I love James earl Jones's voice so will bookmark and try to watch soon! Chrisx

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    1. His voice is always easy to listen to :) I hope you enjoy it/

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  2. I also love James Earl Jones. Brad Dourif is so ugly, he's actually cute! Thanks for the links and the movie. Not sure how I missed this yesterday.

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    1. I'm not into anthology films and didn't know this existed until I was looking more into horror westerns. The stars make the movie in this one :)

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  3. Oh, how odd! Generally all around odd--LOL! ;)

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    1. Agreed! I liked the framing story better than the stories it connected lol

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