I have a friend whose surname is 'Hawes' and so I hoped that the Rene Perez (The Dead and the Damned 3: Ravaged) directed Western horror The Legend of Hawes would be decent. Right from the start however it was clear that the budget for this indie film was really quite low. Add in pacing issues, and a general layer of non-excitement all combined to make this into something of a snooze-fest.
Taking place at some point in the 1800s, the film begins with Harriet (Emily Whitcomb - They Watch) desperately fighting off a band of mutant cannibals who had attacked her family. She is successful, though the only survivors on her side are herself and her German cousin, Inger (Karin Brauns - Playing With Dolls: Bloodlust). Despite her religious upbringing, Harriet swears bloody revenge on those who murdered her family, so she hires the first man she meets, as well as seeks the help of a legendary gunslinger, the titular Hawes (Mike Markoff - Escape to the Cove). Hawes however has become a shadow of his former self after his family were murdered by the same band of cannibals. With or without his help, Harriet sets out to go hunt down the murderers.
There is a layer of low budget to this movie that keeps on being a problem from start to finish. The film frequently looks cheap, nowhere more than the very artificial effects the film keeps having, film grain and sudden sped-up moments don't make this look like a classic Western it hopes to ape, but does make the film look cheap. The story was bizarrely baffling, perhaps not helped by me finding it increasingly difficult to focus on what was happening. The story is about Harriet's search to find the killer family, yet she keeps getting assaulted by seemingly infinite members of this same family. To be fair the masks they wear did look good, maybe where a lot of the budget was spent. There are a few prolonged gun fights that were a fun break in the action. Elsewhere there are solitary characters wandering around the wilderness not really doing much of note.
Special effects used are enthusiastic, I liked the times people got shot and a huge spray of blood would explode from them. Unfortunately the sound effects all sounded placeholder, gunshots were fine enough, but other noises, such as screams and bodies getting cut, sounded generic and too loud compared to the film. It leads up to a finale that wasn't memorable, outside of an awkward breast reveal that almost looked like it was accidental, certainly wasn't needed. Maybe Westerns and horrors just don't mix well, this brought to mind an indie version of Bone Tomahawk, a film which in itself was pretty dull.
The Legend of Hawes wasn't a good horror film or a good Western. I have no problem with indie films, but the cheap look of this, and the occasionally bad retro effects combined to make for a strange film that felt like it hadn't finished its post production treatment. The Legend of Hawes is due for release on 14th November via High Fliers Films.
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