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The movie Legend of Hawes starts with a card that looks like it was lifted from a silent film. It gives a background of sub-human marauders from the old West setting who looted, killed, and skinned their victims faces to wear as armor.
The action further expands as a mountain settlement is attacked, and Harriet (Emily Whitcomb, Righteous Blood, Darkness Waits) and her cousin Inger (Karin Brauns, Once Upon a Time in Deadwood, The Obsidian Curse) managed to survive the ordeal. Without wasting too much time, she gets in touch with Mr. Tyson (Richard Tyson, Cry Havoc, Eternal Code) to help her look for the infamous gunman, Hawes (Mike Markoff, Wrong Place, Wrong Time, The Cove).
The search is short lived as the team encounters Hawes in a sailor’s bar, unconscious on a table. He has lost his family, and is dealing with some issues of his own. Harriet decides against his helpful suggestions and personally employs him. Together, they now set forth on the bloody path of revenge and redemption.
From time to time someone will try to break the formula and go out of their comfort zone but Directors Rene Perez (The Dead and the Damned 3: Ravaged, Cabal) and co-writer Kent Hill (The Vampire and the Vigilante, Righteous Blood) certainly do not allow that and take care that it is totally bloody. They incorporate items from The Hills Have Eyes, Bone Tomahawk, and any other sub par vengeance westerns to guarantee there is always some killing action happening. And there is plenty of practical effects to back that statement up.
And those effects, by Pratik Singh (Nightfall, Pro God-Pro Gun) do not only serve as the highlight of the movie, they also range from bullets hitting the target to many partially chewed up corpses. It is a pity that the movie put all of their effort into those activities for the creature’s backstory because it is painfully apparent how little effort is put in that area. We never learn who these characters are or why they resorted to cannibalism.
That is not the only problem Hawes faces when it comes to The Legend of Hawes. The action sequences are poorly choreographed and the actors simply point guns at each other from the opens, shouting instead of taking cover. As we would come to expect from his other films, Perez never fails to give us the negative aspects of his work. Hawes is first being thrashed when the attacker decides to take a break to, for some reason, allow Harriet to give him a six-shooter. Hawes somehow manages to catch the weapon and cock it in time for the attacker to start moving again, and right before he gets shot, his arm starts swinging again.
Its no surprise that the characters themselves are funny, with their dialogue being something along the lines of “ My body is somewhat hurt but I’m scared.” There tends to be a lot of twists with monologues coupled with religious ideas such as God and his ‘plan.’ At some point, Hawes is visited by an angel. It truly irritates me when a film attempts to leave me with a moral to adhere to. If I did want that, then I’d attend church. Preaching alongside scenes that include ripped out intestines and exposed breasts feels very out of place with Legend of Hawes.
Lastly, Perez really pours it on with the digital film damage effects and this is my last bone to pick. The Legend of Hawes suffers from out of focus shots and has scratch simulation. Even if it is done sparingly, this faux grindhouse style is, and in this case, perhaps revival tent is, well past its use by date to say the least. Even using it all the time like this is unjustifiable.
The question that lingers, however, is who is the target market for Legend of Hawes? The people who view it solely for the blood and boobs are not going to appreciate the untold amount of religious subtext. On the other hand, those seeking to have their faith restored through a story of Hawes’ battle with ‘s redemption might come away disgusted from the film because there is a lot of gore. But for me, the most disturbing aspect of the film was the modern-day epilogue that paves the way for an unwanted sequel.
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