The premise of "Death Kiss" director Rene Perez's East Meets West oater "From Hell to the Wild West" is that Jack the Ripper stopped eviscerating prostitutes in London, England, because the police were on his track, so he uprooted himself and relocated to the Wild West. In a contemporary subplot, a student stumbles onto this idea while reading a diary. Of course, a history professor remain about her scholarship, but he comes around to it gradually as they discuss the possibility. Meanwhile, back to the 19th century American West, we have an armed and dangerous stranger (Robert Bronzi of "Death Kiss") is on the Ripper's trail. The Ripper (Charlie Glackin of "Prey for Death") lures desperate women to an abandoned mining town, so he can kill them. Interestingly enough, the Stranger is implicated in all the grisly deaths. At one point, a lawman tried to arrest him as he was shadowing the Ripper. The lawman intervened and tried to arrest the Stranger, while the Ripper caught a Mexican woman by herself at a stream washing dishes. When the Ripper goes about his nefarious work, he wears a burlap bag over his head. The burlap bag is pretty creepy, and it reminded me of the villainous psychiatrist in "Batman Begins" who utilized a similar mask to intimidate hostages. It looks like a man who has had an autopsy on his face. The powerfully built Ripper overwhelms, tortures, kills, and then collects trophies from his victims. When goes into slasher mode, the Ripper wields a meat cleaver with considerable gusto.
The big problem with "From Hell to the Wild West" is the long stretches of screen time when Charles Bronson lookalike actor Robert Bronzi is off-screen. Perez tries to surprise and distract us with a subplot about a lady Lynn (Sammy Durrani of "Throwdown") and her African American servant girl, Hannah (Alanna Forte of "Little Red Riding Hood"), who visit the remote mining town in search of employment as hostess in a saloon. The lady bares a grudge against her dutiful servant, because the black girl had a sexual relationship with her husband. Eventually, the Stranger joins forces with a lawman, Marshall Patterson (Colin Bryant of "Playing with Dolls: Bloodlust"), who knows that he didn't commit the heinous crimes. While all this is going on, the Stranger has to elude three killers. There is an interesting scene in a jail cell where the imprisoned lady uses a severed arm to reach for a set of keys that will unlock an ankle shackle.
The best thing that Perez does is show the Stranger shooting it out with the three vengeance-driven gunslingers on his trail throughout the film. He proves himself to be an excellent marksman as he eliminates the opposition. Although he doesn't have much characterization to work, Bronzi is the best thing about this hybrid historical western. Not all the acting is substandard. For the record, Hannah kills the Ripper finally after the heroic Stranger plugs him in the back, and then she finishes him off. Ultimately, the history professor believes that his student has a plausible premise. The familiar looking location known as Bandit Town, USA, served as the setting for the mining town. Perez used this same location as the town of Deadwood in "Once Upon A Time in Deadwood." Clocking in at concise 77 minutes, "From Hell to the Wild West" gets by on bits and pieces.
The big problem with "From Hell to the Wild West" is the long stretches of screen time when Charles Bronson lookalike actor Robert Bronzi is off-screen. Perez tries to surprise and distract us with a subplot about a lady Lynn (Sammy Durrani of "Throwdown") and her African American servant girl, Hannah (Alanna Forte of "Little Red Riding Hood"), who visit the remote mining town in search of employment as hostess in a saloon. The lady bares a grudge against her dutiful servant, because the black girl had a sexual relationship with her husband. Eventually, the Stranger joins forces with a lawman, Marshall Patterson (Colin Bryant of "Playing with Dolls: Bloodlust"), who knows that he didn't commit the heinous crimes. While all this is going on, the Stranger has to elude three killers. There is an interesting scene in a jail cell where the imprisoned lady uses a severed arm to reach for a set of keys that will unlock an ankle shackle.
The best thing that Perez does is show the Stranger shooting it out with the three vengeance-driven gunslingers on his trail throughout the film. He proves himself to be an excellent marksman as he eliminates the opposition. Although he doesn't have much characterization to work, Bronzi is the best thing about this hybrid historical western. Not all the acting is substandard. For the record, Hannah kills the Ripper finally after the heroic Stranger plugs him in the back, and then she finishes him off. Ultimately, the history professor believes that his student has a plausible premise. The familiar looking location known as Bandit Town, USA, served as the setting for the mining town. Perez used this same location as the town of Deadwood in "Once Upon A Time in Deadwood." Clocking in at concise 77 minutes, "From Hell to the Wild West" gets by on bits and pieces.