When a Native American curse raises the dead to descend on a sleepy frontier town, a penitent gunslinger, sentenced to hang, seeks redemption by leading the townsfolk in their desperate fight for survival.
Mike PedleySingularity
When a Native American curse raises the dead to descend on a sleepy frontier town, a penitent gunslinger, sentenced to hang, seeks redemption by leading the townsfolk in their desperate fight for survival.
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Good plot, but I’d love to get a hint of the emotions of the gunslinger. Why does he even want to save the town if he is going to hang anyways? Is this a chance for escape for him? Also, I think you can cut a little, the untried lawmen and townsfolk becomes the inexperienced townsfolk.
>>>must lead the inexperienced townsfolk in a desperate fight for survival.
Still missing something. He could just cut and run.? Why not?? ?Why MUST he stay?? What is the emotional bond between him and the town that would induce him to stay and fight?? Was his death sentence and act of justice or is he a victim of a gross injustice?
I’ve amended slightly. He’s waiting for his brother and the rest of his crew to come and bust him out of jail so he’s sticking around because that’s where they expect him to be and he doesn’t want them to walk into this zombie infested town if he’s not there. There’d be lots of other factors keeping him there, the horses are all killed, the lawmen are keeping a close eye on him, he knows he’s got a better chance of survival than out in the wilderness etc. Early on, it’d be established that either his brother will come and rescue him or the hangman and city lawmen will arrive. It’d start as a straight western with a ticking clock from the get go. I figured this new version adds the fewest words whilst at least going someway to justify why he’s staying there.
It is really good! Sure, you can fix a few words here and there, but as a concept it makes me see and taste the whole movie, the conflict, the inner journey (he stays because he wants to save his own ass, but ends up saving the townsfolk -perhaps?).
Cowboys and zombies, yum yum!
Not only has there to be a “why” for the gunslinger to stick around, and rescue the town, there needs to be a “why” for the zombie attack in the first place.
Why are zombies attacking this town?? Why now???
And is there a causal link between the gunslinger’s sentence and the zombie uprising???
>>>dead are risen by a Native American curse activated by over-mining for gold
Okay.? But now there seems to be 2 story threads.? ?So?what is your story really about?? What is the central plot, the dramatic clothesline, on which everything else hangs?
Frankly, as someone who grew up in the American West (in a landscape littered with abandoned? mines and ghost towns),? I think the Native American curse is the more interesting thread .? The gunslinger thread seems to me to be rather bland, stereotypical; it doesn’t seem to bring anything new to the Western genre
But Native American zombies as avenging angels-demons?
In the post-“Dancing with Wolves” era of cinema, the cultural narrative has shifted such that Native American are now cast as the victims, not the villains.? ? So, why should the gunslinger want to defend the town folk when they are guilty of an environmental evil, of squatting on and stealing Native American lands and resources?? Why should the audience want to route for the? townspeople to prevail?? The White invaders seem to be the? bad guys;? the zombie attack? is a righteous response to their “sins”.
So, I think there is , uh,? a rich vein of narrative gold ore to mine in the story angle of zombies as avenging “angel-demons” of ecological and tribal? injustice.
fwiw
When zombies attack a sleepy frontier town, a gunslinger, sentenced to hang, must lead the townsfolk in their fight against the undead horde.”
“When their sheriff?is killed by zombies, a gunslinger, sentenced to hang, is now the only one to lead the peaceful townsfolk in their fight against the undead horde.”