They Call Her Death is a unique experience. It takes considerable courage to make a spaghetti western in 2025 that looks and feels like it’s straight out of the early ‘60s. From the grainy film stock to the warbling soundtrack, this is a modem version of the old low-budget classics. How you feel about it will largely depend on how much you enjoyed the original version.
- Directed By: Austin Snell
- Written By: Austin Snell
- Starring: Sheri Rippel. Jeff Boyer. Devan R. Garcia
Isn’t this a horror blog? Make no mistake, They Call Her Death is a good old-fashioned revenge movie. The leading lady, Molly, is set on her path of vengeance when her husband is framed for murder and killed by a bounty hunter. As she tries to get justice, she uncovers the corruption of her town. When things don’t work out the usual way, she resorts to extreme measures to get her vengeance.
The In-Joke
The problem with quirky movies is they require the audience to be completely in on the joke. The good news about They Call Her Death is it’s very good at what it does. Mixing over the top grindhouse gore with low-budget western elements, and throwing in a touch of the supernatural, adds up to a fun time, if you can overlook the uneven acting and pacing.
Character is Everything
Which I can, since everything else is just that good. One of my favorite parts is the inclusion of a Black man as Deputy Turner. He was hired by the corrupt sheriff as a disposable lackey and potential patsy. This post-Civil War-era setting offers great opportunity for his character to shine in tough emotional situations as well as action sequences. It also gives the villains a lot to play off as well. He also gets the best dialogue, probably because the actor has amazing comedic timing and delivery.
Molly is physically impressive, but her role requires more steely eyed determination than deep emotional swings. The back half of the movie compounds this by dressing her in all black, including a face covering. Her body language is awesome, because it has to be. We’re not looking at John Wick fight choreography here, after all this is a western. If anything, some fights went on too long. Everything is done with humor thought. At least once the movie hits its stride.
The Not-So-Good
Yeah, it’s that pacing thing again. They Call Her Death has two distinct halves: the set-up and the pay-off. They even feel tonally different. Molly mourning and planning her revenge is much less fun than Molly and Deputy Turner carrying out the plan. It’s important set-up, but it’s probably a bit longer than it needed to be.
The Bad Guys
The bad guys are appropriately evil and deserving of the justice Molly doles out. They manage to work in racism, sexism, and white nationalism before they meet an impressive end. For revenge movies to be fun to watch, the bad guys must deserve every bit of the violence coming their way. This set does. The western background helps a bit here as it provides some quick context into a lawless time. The filmmakers don’t need to spend much time explaining bounty hunters, or the wild west. If you know, you know. If you don’t, you’re probably not the intended audience.
They Call Her Death is a bloody movie, but it doesn’t linger on gore or suffering. It’s more a live action cartoon, complete with dynamite gags. Like I said, the second half of this movie is wild. The imagery is solid, and it feels like the filmmakers are doing what they set out to do. For me, it’s worth the wait.
Genre-Blending
It can be hard to recommend hyper-specific genre mash-up movies. If you haven’t at least seen and enjoyed the Fistful of Dollars trilogy, maybe sit this one out. It’s based off tropes established in those early movies. Spaghetti Westerns and Low-Budget Horror have a lot in common.
They Call Her Death uses those commonalities to craft a fun and quirky tale. It takes advantages of the strengths of both genres. It’s not a perfect movie, but it delivers a nice bit of modern nostalgia. Also, the opening credits are amazing. They credited all the animals in the movie by name. There’s a lot of love in this movie.
Final Thoughts
In a lot of ways, They Call Her Death is the kind of movie I started this blog to write about. It’s horror, or at least adjacent. Definitely supernatural, and very bloody. More importantly, it’s made by people with a clear and distinct vision and aesthetic. It’s not for everyone, but if you have an open mind and a love of western mash-ups, this could be for you. It was definitely for me.
What I liked :
- Molly and the Deputy
- Great cinematography
- Death
What I Didn’t:
- Fight scenes got long.
- That pacing thing.
They Call Her Death is available to stream on Shudder
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