- Directed by Michael Su
- Written by Rolfe Kanefsky, Michael Mahal, Sonny Mahal
- Stars Richard Grieco, Tom Sizemore, Robert LaSardo
- Run Time:
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73Py8bdI5lg
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This one is a creepy story in an excellent setting with good direction. The script was a little talky with a large cast. There were some good performances, most notably and not surprisingly from the top three billed guys, but some of the acting wasn’t the strongest. Overall though, it was a fun effort worth the watch.
Synopsis
The miners don’t think the old mine can take much more dynamite. That’s OK, because there are worse things down here, like Tommyknockers. Think leprechauns, only bigger and much meaner. One of the men up ahead yells that he found gold, and all the others run to join him except one guy who falls flat on his face. When that guy gets up, he’s the only one left. Credits roll.
The Dirk gang is in town, causing trouble. They rip off a guy gambling in the saloon, and then they stop in to rob a bank. The rest of the town sets up an ambush outside the bank. They take Betsy, a bank employee, as a hostage. There’s a quick shootout where everyone mostly stands out in the open and doesn’t get hit, then the bad guys all ride away.
The bandits make camp for the night, and we soon learn that Betsy was in on the caper all along. They all sit around the campfire and have a somewhat awkward conversation. Dirk knows of a bank full of gold in Nevada. The gold miners there store all their gold in the local bank, and it’s just sitting there waiting to be plundered.
Tobin Horn, a Pinkerton, comes to town collecting bounties, and he wants to go after Dirk and his men. The dead bank manager’s brother also swears to get revenge on the gang.
The gang arrives in town, and they find the town deserted. They all search, but there’s just nobody there. The horses, on the other hand, get spooked by something and run away.
One of the guys, Lucky, gets attacked by something that looks like a zombie mummy monster thing, a Tommyknocker. Night falls, and Dirk and the guys finally hole up with the town’s few survivors, and the Tommyknockers attack. The people inside whine about what’s happening and how they’re all gonna die. Marshall Steed wants to fight the things till the army gets here. They go on for ages talking about their predicament as Dirk and the gang sit on the sidelines.
The marshall’s got a group of prisoners in the jail who want to help fight, but he doesn’t want to release them. Finally, some of the bar patrons reveal to the gang that the monsters outside are called Tommyknockers. The miners woke them up somehow down in the mine, and they’ve been feeding on the townspeople ever since.
Suddenly, the Tommyknockers attack, and the locals fight them off– with only a few losses. The monsters soon return, and this time, the townspeople don’t fare so well. We get a glimpse of the creatures in their underground lair, and they’re eating bits of people down there.
Dirk wants to get the gold out of the Wells Fargo safe. Someone mentions that maybe that’s all the monsters want– their gold back. All the attacks come at night. Julia’s a photographer, and she mentions that she has flash powder.
Tobin, the bounty hunter, arrives in town. He finishes off Lucky and yells for Dirk. Dirk gets some dynamite from the general store and blows up the gold-filled safe. Tobin gets the drop on Dirk as Betsy clears out the safe. Betsy comes out and shoots Tobin, but the monsters get Dirk soon after.
Betsy, Julia, and Fred take the gold and head out into the mountains– right near the mine. Julia and Fred take the gold into the mine to give back to the monsters. The sun comes up, and all the Tommyknockers return to their caves, where the last survivors are now hopelessly lost. Betsy gets eaten, but Fred and Julia make their way out. They dynamite the cave shut on the way out.
In an after-credits scene, we continue the running joke of Lucky, who apparently can’t really be killed…
Commentary
We recently watched “Bridge of the Doomed” by the same director and it had many of the same cast members. That one didn’t have the clunky dialog that this one had, but this one has much more elaborate sets and outdoor filming.
There are a lot of characters, and some of them are played by actors– quite a few of them, however– wow. Actually, there are far too many characters, and most of them end up with some dialog, so it’s a very talky film, especially for the first hour. Why, if this was going on for several days in a row, would there be any townspeople at all left in the town? They didn’t flee during the day? Did they just think the monsters would get bored and stop coming?
The Tommyknockers themselves are really well done and look good. Once the monsters show up, the action picks up.