Watched; VHS rip/ws/pretty good picture quality/Spanish audio only.
Ayoung boy named Gary is kidnapped by seven masked men and a ransom of $20’000 is demanded of his mother. She duly rushes into town (where she is spied upon) and empties her bank account, unwitting of the fact that things aren’t going to go as smoothly as she thinks. Enter Fred (Brett Halsey), a dishevelled drunk who attracts the scorn of pretty much everybody, including the local sheriff and his deputy. The sheriff reveals that Fred was once also a Lawman and flashbacks seem to suggest that he sank into alcoholism after accidentally causing the deaths of his wife and son. Fred is tempted by the lure of a bottle of whiskey, into going to collect the ransom money from the boy’s mother. His suspicions are raised when she questions him about her son, something he wasn’t made aware of and which does not sit well with him. To make matters worse, on the ride home he and the gangmember he gave the money to are ambushed. The other man is killed and the money is taken. All fingers point to the hapless Fred. The rest of the gang think he stole the cash while the townspeople believe he is the kidnapper - so it’s time for him to sober up, find out what’s really going on and redeem himself by rescuing the boy.
Another one I’d wanted for some considerable time. Dug the theme song, and the rest of the score was not bad. The lack of English again did not cause the film to be confusing, although there were a lot of twists and turns and double crosses and of course a surprise villain (moderately more surprising than the one from Wrath Of God). The kid wasn’t too annoying either, for once. Some parts of the film had a slightly "gothic"feel to them - red mist in the woods and a use of lighting on people’s faces that was more akin to old horror films. Overall another enjoyable viewing but again, it would be nice one day to find an english or subbed version…either that or take a crash course in Spanish.