shburns393 According to IMDb this is Dean Teaster's (West?) directorial debut. Why is it everybody thinks they can direct? Yes, there are two directors listed in the credits, but since it's called Dean Teaster's Ghost Town, I'm assuming the other director (who has a few directing credits to his name) was put there by the producer's to hold Teaster's hand. The problem is he should have held it harder. Some would argue he should have squeezed it. Like so many posts that have come before, it is in the editing where everything breaks down. Yes, you are clearly working on a very small budget. But that has nothing, repeat nothing, to do with telling a good story. I have rarely watched such a poor assemblage of scenes. It is almost as if they don't want you to follow the story. Just when you think you know where it is going, the scene switches and something non essential to the story is thrown in. Teaster makes many rookie mistakes like this. He is so enamored of everything that was shot that he puts it in no matter if it works to advance the story. Plus he lacks the ability to create proper pacing within individual scenes. It is like watching a conductor, who lacks any sense of rhythm, lead an orchestra. Painful. While one can learn to cut out scenes that don't work, lack of rhythm is another matter. A good editor, and a good director, have an innate sense of rhythm. The best are usually musicians, or at least play an instrument, and can transfer that understanding of timing and tempo to the story. I would hazard a guess that Teaster isn't a musician, and probably has two left feet as well.

dirkwash After checking out the previous comments I see that I am not alone in my views of this movie. On the first watching I was confused and disappointed. So after watching it a second time I took some time and tried to figure out what was wrong. The comments here only helped to confirm my conclusions. Have you ever bought a plastic model of a car, opened the box and visualized what it would look like completed? Now imagine giving that model to a five year old and let them put it together unsupervised. When it's done you will have a fairly good idea what Ghost Town looks like. Each scene seemed to have all of the basic requirements to create tension, build the story, and advance the character arc. I could see all of the individual small parts just like looking at a plastic model straight out of the box. And just like that model I could envision the final product fully assembled. But for Ghost Town that is where everything falls apart. You can "see" the whole story, which is not overly complicated or deep. But it looks like it was assembled by a five year old. That creates a great deal of frustration on the part of the viewer. It is one thing to watch a bad movie. It is quite another to watch what appears to be a good movie put together with little understanding of plot, timing, or character development. Watching each scene you can "feel" where it is supposed to go, but each time the editing sends it way off track. Like a previous comment I suggest that you never let the editor near another movie again. At least not until he goers back to school and learns how a movie should be assembled. Otherwise you end up with a plastic model that doesn't quite match the box cover art!

longtrisha I have a masters degree and while I don't hold that above anyone I was surprised by a few of the comments listed. First I knew of DJ Perry at MSU many years ago but I have not kept up with him or spoke to him since those days. I do look out for new films he is in because I really like how someone that had dreams so many years ago made all that happen. Most recently I had to go to Walmart and buy Dean Teaster's Ghost Town. I was surprised when I did not see him on the cover but after watching it DJ is one of the main stars. My husband told me the one guy on the cover is a country singer Sammy Kershaw. OK. I watched the film twice and I found that the beginning was a great visual trip that took the audience through the Old man's sickness filled with guilt. It eluded to all this through several feverish flashbacks hence the trippy dream within a dream. I thought that the whole story unfolded in a very unique way vs just A to B to C to D. That is what I liked about PULP FICTION. I guess I'm glad that they did not dumb the film down. The characters and themes added a real depth. The power of legend and superstition. Father and son relationships. Seeds of love planted and never harvested. I could go on and on about what I liked in this film. The cast was great and I have to say that I never guessed that DJ would be doing these moving scenes today. Back at MSU he was also a nice person but I guess when we hear people talk about being in movies we say to ourselves...yeah right.I'm here to say...he was right. Congrats to him and the entire cast. I loved the cranky old general and the old outlaw as well. Great to see some faces from other popular TV shows. My father was a TOUR OF DUTY fan and so when he saw Terence Knox and Tony Becker he was excited. He also really enjoyed the film and was excited about Rance Howard and Bill McKinney.Overall a great film and for those that can't piece stuff together...I can't wait to see what comes next.

simonnails66 Call out the editor at high noon and put a bullet through his heart. This is the most confusing movie I have ever watched.. I had to watch it five times before I was able to put things together; who was who, and what was going on. The scenes seem to be placed in a confusing manner on purpose. The line between past events and present is crossed far too often and at very inopportune times. The constant image of Suzie pops up in a random way that never furthers the story. The individual scenes are fine in and of themselves. They make sense internally. But when you put them together in this crazy quilt way you end up with a mosaic of images that when you step back to take in as a whole, becomes quite incomprehensible. My advice would be to download this on your laptop and edit it yourself. I figure a couple of hours and you would have a fairly descent story that would be easy to follow.