Stop abusing the bishop long enough to find a copy of DEADWOOD PARK!

Essentially what you have here is a big sprawling novel like structure crammed into an indie film with a decidedly low budget. Ambitious, is the first word that comes to my mind when thinking about Eric Stanze's Deadwood Park. Ordinarily Indie filmmakers stick with tight, close quartered, dialogue heavy work that finds a place and time and digs in. Not so in the case of this little film which incorporates what amounts to a more than sixty year timeframe spanning from 1943 all the way up to the present. It doesn't end there either; this mystery involves scenes from World War II that look surprisingly good considering they were obviously lensed in Missouri, on very tight funding.

The story centers on a small community by the name of "Eidolon Crossing" Missouri, the quintessential small American town whose biggest draw is its standing carnival "Dogwood Park". Beginning in 1944 the community became noted for another reason however, when the first child disappeared, bringing the sleepy community to prominence. Over the course of the next 35 years, 25 more children would go missing, the last of which being Francis Richardson in 1979, since then it has been as quiet as the now abandoned amusement park that was closed in the wake of the last disappearance.

Jake Richardson (William Clifton) has returned to his family's old home. He hasn't been back since the death of his brother in '79 and is returning now to work out some personal problems he left behind in St. Louis. Settling into his childhood home he finds himself visited by ghosts, at first just the demons of the mind as he remembers his brothers last days, then of the much more substantial "I don't fucking believe what I am seeing" variety that don't simply appear but actually talk to him! Jake heads for town in search of answers but what he finds is a town, in particular its Sheriff, who would rather forget the tragedies of the past. As Jake pursues the answers to his questions he is joined by the Sheriff's daughter Olivia (Lindsey Luscri) who finds Jake a pleasant diversion from the locals and agrees to help regardless of what her father thinks.

What the two uncover is a mystery of huge proportions that must be peeled carefully layer by layer in order to unravel the answer behind the ghost children. The kids want vindication for their untimely deaths and will not leave Jake alone until he discovers the ugly truth.

The story is large and the details quite involved as the investigation escalates towards its conclusion. Director Stanze has told a very involved tale that you rarely see in a production on this scale. It suffers only marginally from a few amateurish performances which are easily overlooked in consideration of the enormity of his undertaking. The attention to detail is painstakingly evident in every frame as it jumps around recounting the story. In other words, this is not one of those little pictures one can leave to wiz or get a beer and come back knowing right where you are. In order to keep up you will have to let go of the tit, or cock, depending upon individual proclivity, and pay attention! You will be glad you did too because this is one that is not going where you think it is!

This is writer/director Stanze's eighth go around in the directors' chair following such hardcore horror titles such as Scrapbook, Ice from the Sun, I Spit on your Corpse I Piss on your Grave and others. This film proves he is a talent worth watching and quite capable of producing incredible work others of lesser abilities would have shied away from. The scale of Deadwood Park would have probably sent a less imaginative auteur running for the safety of a dramatic one setting Waiting for Godot type of feature! Thankfully Mr. Stanze has both the balls as well as the drive, and chose to follow his heart into an ambitious venture such as this. It stands as a unique feature sure to entertain anyone capable of putting aside some production value slip, in favor of a big story that will keep you guessing right up to its conclusion!