The Burrowers (2008) dir J.T. Petty & Amok Train (1989) dir Jeff Kwinty

I was digging through netflix last night and happened upon two movies that weren't brilliant but were worth watching.

The Burrowers (2008) is a solid Weird Western.  I'm a huge fan of the genre and have been for longer than I can remember - in fact I think it might be in my top five favorite genres, even beating out Satanic horror flicks.  I wasn't expecting much from The Burrowers yet I was pleasantly surprised.  It was a solid movie from start to finish:  professional production quality, a great score, decent acting, while not chilling it had a few tense moments, the creature effects were good (and reminded me of a movie I think would be a great double feature with -  Dead Birds).  Not to give anything away but it's basically a horror movie set in the late 1800s in the Dakotas.  A group of homesteaders disappears and a group of men go out to find them.  They think it's an Indian raiding party but it turns out to be much worse.  I'm not going to hype The Burrowers  up to much, it's basically a pot-boiler Weird Western but it's well done.

Now Amok Train (1989) aka Beyond the Door III is not a good movie.  I haven't seen Beyond the Door or Beyond the Door II but I'm pretty sure I didn't miss anything.  I say it's not a good movie but it has elements that kept me watching: inventive and creepy deaths, a really sweet pseudo-giallo score, creepy villagers, some great lines, Satan, Mary Kohnert's bare bosoms, and - at times - some awesome cinematography.  It's two notches above campy - the creepiness sees to that - and some of the deaths are suitably grisly (one in particular made me rethink eating tomato sauce and rice while the spoon was halfway to my mouth).  I recommend it if you're a fan of Satanic cult movies or obscure horror flicks, if you're not then you might want to look elsewhere.