Concept:

A gunslinger, Aman (Wesley Snipes) kills a gang of outlaws after they rape Aman’s lover, who later dies after giving birth to one of the rapist’s kids. While escaping the prison where the massacre happens, someone shoots and kills Aman in view of his mother, a nun in a secret order. She breaks her vows to God and prays to Satan to bring her son back. Satan grants her wish, but curses Aman in the process; Whoever died from Aman’s bullets comes back to life. 

Nearly everyone Aman shot that day returns from the grave, seeking revenge on Aman. The gang specifically is also searching for the secret order of nuns so they can figure out why one of their own wasn’t resurrected. Aman enlists the help of an escaped prisoner, and together, they journey to take down the gang of revenants before they can harm any more innocent people.

How they fucked it up:

To start off, the filmmakers were given a completion bond order for Gallowwalkers. In the context of making movies, this means FINISH THE FUCKING MOVIE WITHIN THE BUDGET/TIME FRAME OR FACE CONSEQUENCES.

What kinds of consequences? VARIABLE AND NEBULOUS CONSEQUENCES.

The movie already went through several massive upheavals before production started. It was originally called The Wretched, was still supposed to be a Western about zombies, and was supposed to star Chow Yun-Fat as the lead. The plot was essentially a zombie hunter and his apprentice dealing with a zombie outlaw “jailbreak.” But, after Yun-Fat left the project, Snipes joined production, and the story shifted to a semblance of what it is now; a cursed man and his apprentice try to stop a gang of zombies from hurting any more people than they already have.

Filming in Namibia was delayed a few weeks in, after Wesley Snipes was formally charged with tax evasion in the US. Snipes was able to go back to Namibia and resume filming while he was out on bail. After initial filming wrapped up in late 2006, the crew started selling off props and costumes (including the main bad guy’s sick purple jacket), and shifted into post-production. But, then, in 2009, the filmmakers realized they needed to film pickup shots and redo some scenes entirely. Remember, the completion bond stipulation was still in effect. If the producers didn’t ship the movie, staff members would start getting fired/replaced so that production finishes, or the whole thing gets cancelled, letting the investors get their money back (at least, that’s what normally happens with completion bonds). They no longer had the budget to go back to Africa and were scrambling to get their set items and costumes back. To make matters worse, Snipes had already been convicted and sentenced. He was trying to both appeal his conviction and cram all of his prior filming commitments into that year before going to prison. This resulted in more delays to the reshoots, and in turn, more changes to be made to the script. 

Because of all the changes, the plot of the movie itself is all over the place, even with the infodumps. There are plot elements that either go nowhere. Characters are introduced, given a bit of focus, then abruptly die along with their plot pieces. The Sisterhood of San Diablo and the portal to Hell they are sworn to guard has a direct hand in the plot, but we only ever see one of their number. The settlement/cult full of albino people is introduced, then quickly sidelined for the zombie outlaws to step in. There isn’t really a reason for the female hostage to be featured so prominently, since she adds nothing to the story aside from corset-enhanced boobs. We don’t even find out her name until the end credits. It isn’t explained why the undead Aman doesn’t need to steal and wear other people’s skin, but the zombie gang does. Why are some of the zombies the “urrrgh, brains” zombies, but the main bad guys are still sentient? Why did three of the outlaws dress up like the Spanish Inquisition? Why did the female gang member get shot when she didn’t participate in the gang rape that started the whole plot? (I guess because Aman was just shooting everyone in the prison, but still.)

I don’t know where the pickup shots were needed, or what scenes needed to be redone. But, if I had to guess, they weren’t done for the last act of the movie. In the first hour or so, we got lots of ambient desert shots, or scenes of what Aman’s allies/enemies are doing before he shows up. There was also the big battle in the slaughterhouse, which had some interesting shots, and flowed decently once the biggest henchman joined in. But, once the bad guys found where the Sisterhood lives, the movie went “GOGOGOKILLTHEBADGUYSINONESHOTTHERE’STHEPLOTTWISTROLLCREDITSLET’SGO!!!” So, the battles with the most important members of the gang are over in under a minute. You would think a revolver duel on a mountaintop wouldn’t be boring, but in Gallowwalkers, it is.

Wesley Snipes likely had a bajillion other things on his mind during filming. This probably contributed to his less-than-stellar performance. Aman is supposed to be a grizzled Western fella with a soft spot for his loved ones. But, the way he speaks and looks at people, he just seems bored and condescending, like he can’t be bothered with the people asking him reasonable questions regarding their safety. The other cast members don’t fare much better. Riley Smith, who played Aman’s protégé, was so flat in his performance, even when he was supposed to be freaking out about all the zombies and shit. The women in the movie were underutilized, only being used as props to move the film along or for the corset-boobs. Kevin Howarth, playing gang leader Kansa, did okay in his role. Even though his performance was giving Willem DaFoe’s Green Goblin with added neck-sniffing, it was at least appropriately uncomfortable.

The worst part about Gallowwalkers was that there was something interesting buried underneath the completion bond order and Snipes’ legal troubles. The idea that there was a secret order constantly trying to keep mankind safe from the undead is really cool. The albino settlement was creepy with how they just quietly watched prisoners being put to death. The gang members needing to skin people on a regular basis put more pressure on the good guys to stop them. And personally, I’m always down to see cool Black cowboys doing cool Black cowboy things (Blazing Saddles FTW). 

But, what we are given is very surface-level, without really delving into why or how these aspects could be made more interesting. The story is disjointed, the cast is either bored or just gone after 3 minutes, and 20 minutes from the end, the editing and pace of the movie goes into hyperdrive. Gallowwalkers had a $17 million budget and ended up making less than 1% of it back through box office sales. The producers didn’t bother putting it out in US theaters, and the money it made during its initial run was just for the international markets. I’m not sure if the DVD sales or streaming numbers allowed the filmmakers to break even. But, hey, at least they finished the movie and released it. So, they didn’t get sued by the investors. …Right?