Overview: Revenge is a hearty meal for phantoms of the prairie! On a dark and haunting night, all that is visible by the campfire light is the breath of vicious lawmen.

The local preacher and townspeople gather on a lonesome prairie as the lawless career of desperado Frank Clements is about to end. Just as the hangman’s noose tightens around his neck, the most feared outlaw of 1888 shouts a curse of revenge on the town preacher - a curse which will haunt the preacher’s family through generations.

One hundred years later, unsuspecting of the events in 1888, the town is prospering. Frank Clements and his gang return from hell to seek revenge against the preacher’s grandson and his family.

The fight against the phantoms from the past proves futile, and they become unwilling victims of bloodthirsty outlaws. Weapons are defenseless against the phantom cowboys - you can’t kill what’s already dead!

Blu-ray Verdict: Ghostriders is another Prism Video release of yet another ultra-low budget, regional horror affair, along with The Forest and Satan’s Blade, seemingly intent on the direct-to-home entertainment route that so many used to use back in the fabulous schlocky ’80s

Created by young filmmakers just starting out who simply didn’t have the budget (or cinematic talent, for the most part, sorry) to really score an Evil Dead-status classic, this film was made in and around Waco, Texas, and concerns itself with a bunch of ideas cobbled together from just as many sources.

From High Plains Drifter (via Stranger’s Gundown) we get the idea of gunfighters returning from the grave to avenge their somewhat unjust killings, although imported from Euro Horrors like Horror Rises from The Tomb the targets of their wrath are the present day descendants of those who executed them; complete with a Night of The Living Dead-style ending.

Toss in a smattering of teen horror themes and a slightly unstable Vietnam vet who didn’t find time to change out of his camouflage fatigues and walks around packing a nickel-plated .45 and we have the makings of 85 minutes of interesting visual, genre-bleeding fare, that’s for sure.

The plot concerns an elder researcher who stumbles across the story of a mass execution 100 years before that sent a gang of crooks to their tombs with a vow to avenge themselves.

At more or less the same time a group of young misfits embarks on an excursion to find the old cemetery to find the resting place of their relatives who find themselves pursued by a posse of cowboys who pick them off one by one, eventually leading to a Night of The Living Dead-like climax where the survivors barricade themselves into a ranch house and try to fight them off.

That all said, there are some decent moments of gunslinger gore, a nice explosion or two, and a pretty young leading lady who doesn’t shirk at the idea of stripping down to her undies for a dip in the ole’ swimmin’ hole.

One of the misfits is the aforementioned Vietnam vet who helps to guide the youngsters to relative safety, and there is some not so subtle commentary on 1980s youth culture fixations, like the Walkman craze and the idiotic fashions that we appallingly wore back then!

None of it really amounts to anything though, and after a protracted ending showdown the movie just sort of, well, ends. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, though none of it is hardly memorable, sorry (again).

The one thing I did like about the film is it’s totally ordinary look. None of the scenery or interiors looks particularly cinematic or out of the ordinary for the viewers.

It looks like any old river running down any old stretch of rural Texas, and the characters don’t wear costumes so much as whatever clothes they had on hand: Even the cowboys seem to be wearing Levis jeans and work shirts rather than authentic Western gear.

In fact, sure, it’s all just plain ordinary, but that’s Waco for you, I guess, and the film (which is making its debut on Blu-ray and DVD) is yet another rare example of an attempt to blend Western themes with an outright horror movie setting (or the other way around, maybe) and I kind of like that. This is a Widescreen Presentation (1.66:1) enhanced for 16x9 TVs and comes with the Special Features of:

NEW! Audio Commentary with director of photography / producer Thomas L. Calloway, writer/producer James Desmarais and moderator Steve Latshaw
NEW! “Bringing Out the Ghosts: The Making of Ghost Riders” (new original documentary)
“Low Budget Films: On the Set of Ghost Riders” (vintage documentary)
Movie Stills & Behind the Scenes Photo Gallery
English Subtitles
Original Theatrical Trailer
New Reissue Trailer