“The Pale Door”: A Weird Western Highlight Bonus content enhances this entertaining release

I am a sucker for Westerns, and the related genres of Weird Westerns and horror-Western mashups have been experiencing an increase of movies, books and comics to provide those stories, which in turn increases the audience for those types of stories, which gets us more of those stories to enjoy.

The Pale Door is a western that takes a different approach to witches, creating a myth around women from Salem who were victims of Cotton Mather, and the story of an encounter between them and a band of outlaws. How much of the events causing the paths of the witches and outlaws to cross, bringing them into the trap the witches have set is a question that lingers, and heightens some of the intrigue that follows.

Extras are a highlight of this Blu-ray release. I am a big fan of commentary tracks, and this one contains commentary featuring Aaron B. Koontz, and one of the other co-writers, Cameron Burns. The number of times they mentioned shots that were actually captured in between takes is amusing, showing how they had to adapt to shifting situations with actor availability and the unpredictability of storm season weather in Oklahoma.

And learning about some of the background of a lot of the scenes featuring Bill Sage make me wish I could have had a chance to interview him as well.

In the “Making of” featurette, the filmmakers discuss many of the story details, the themes underneath the action & dialogue we see on screen, including prep for some scenes before they began shooting, and a separate short featurette about the editing of the feature, focused on editor Greg MacLennan approached his first time editing a feature film (his previous experience had been editing shorter projects & trailers).

Don’t miss the interview with Aaron about The Pale Door (with a little bit on Scare Package)

The Dalton gang find shelter in a seemingly uninhabited ghost town after a train robbery goes south. Seeking help for their wounded leader, they are surprised to stumble upon a welcoming brothel in the town’s square. But the beautiful women who greet them are actually a coven of witches with very sinister plans for the unsuspecting outlaws – and the battle between good and evil is just beginning.

Starring: Devin Druid, Zachary Knighton, Noah Segan, Stan Shaw, Pat Healy), Bill Sage, Melora Walters, Natasha Bassett
Directed by: Aaron B. Koontz
Written by: Aaron B. Koontz, Cameron Burns, Keith Lansdale