Ghosts of Red Ridge Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		1.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		1.5

Ghosts of Red Ridge Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 13, 2024

The television division of the venerable Warner Brothers studio became renowned (and very successful) for pumping out a largely interchangeable set of both western and private eye series throughout the late fifties to early sixties, shows that were so similar it might have taken a trivia expert to adequately describe the differences between, say, Hawaiian Eye and Surfside 6, or, alternatively (and saliently, given the genre of the film under discussion), Cheyenne and Sugarfoot. In that regard, it might be jokingly argued that the "ghosts" referred to in the title of this movie are not in fact the spectral presences of the dearly (or not so dearly) departed, but instead the vestiges of every other "mass produced" western you've ever seen, albeit with the proviso that "mass produced" may not fully indicate just how low budgeted this effort seems to have been.

Sheriff Dunlap (Owen Williams) is confronting all sorts of trouble in his little town, not the least of which is the town is rather quickly dying due to a lack of opportunities and "little" things like robberies and gunfights breaking out with alarming regularity. Things get even worse for Dunlap when he starts to have visions of the victims of the violence, visions which may or may not be linked to mysterious stranger being held in jail. This brief summary actually probably makes the film sound more interesting than it turns out to be, because the ghost element is used kind of surprisingly sparingly, at least given its prominence in the title, and instead the film hovers in the same general High Noon territory of a lawman forced to confront evil, or at least villainy, under duress.

Ghosts of Red Ridge Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Ghosts of Red Ridge is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. Probably unsurprisingly there's very little (as in no) technical information on the shoot that I could dredge up online, but this is a competent and at times rather nicely detailed digital capture that I'm assuming had a 2K DI. Kind of like those Warner Brothers televisions westerns of yore, there's a technical proficiency to the appearance of the film, but really not much depth or nuance to the visuals. Visions of ghosts are fleeting at best, but offer a couple of jump scares, while the use of Arizona locations (including a rather well known existing "town set") is nicely utilized, and detail levels on things like sets and costumes is typically very good to excellent. The palette is nicely suffused, if maybe just slightly on the orange side in some of the outdoor material. My score is 4.25.

Ghosts of Red Ridge Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Ghosts of Red Ridge features a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track that, like the visuals, is competent if not overwhelmingly impressive. A glut of ambient environmental effects dot the side and rear channels throughout the many outdoor scenes, but the kind of hilarious lack of horses in the film means things like panning effects of galloping hooves can be minimal. The score by Robert Orpheus Campbell is obviously meant to evoke Ennio Morricone, to fitful effect. Dialogue (such as it is) is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

Ghosts of Red Ridge Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer (HD; 1:47)

Note: As tends to be the case with Well Go USA Blu-ray releases, the disc has been authored to automatically move on to trailers for other Well Go USA releases after the trailer for this film plays. Those trailers for other Well Go USA releases also play automatically at disc boot up.

Packaging features a slipcover.

Ghosts of Red Ridge Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Ghosts of Red Ridge kind of wastes what is arguably its most distinctive aspect, namely the whole ghost story angle. Everything else here is like a veritable cliché museum of tropes from other westerns. Technical merits are generally solid for anyone who may be considering making a purchase.