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Rio Kid is the fastest gunman around, but he only kills in self defense
and only kills outlaws, many of whom actually challenge him to usurp the
throne of frastest gunmen - none succeed. There is something creepy about
Rio Kid by the way, like the fact that he hasn't aged a day in the last 30
years ... Manuel is a righteous man, but he bears a brand of shame
because his father was an outlaw so ruthless that songs about him are sung
in the region, songs that tear Manuel's heart apart. Sure, Manuel's dad is
long dead, but his reputation has made Manuel's life a living hell. So
Manuel wants to meet Rio Kid, a man who has known (and probably killed)
his dad, just to talk. On his way to San José, where Rio Kid is said to
reside, Manuel meets Nestor, a man who has spent the last 10 years in
prison innocently, and now wants to avenge himself on the man who put him
there - Rio Kid. San José has turned into a ghost town since Nestor has
gone to prison, only a few residents are still living there - including
Rio Kid of course, whom everyone fears. It's not clear why though, because
he offers his friendship to Manuel, saves singer Carmen when two thugs are
trying to rape her, and spares Nestor's life when he clearly outguns him
in a duel. However, Carmen soon dies under mysterious circumstances, and
is found walking the streets after her death, Nestor swears he has hit Rio
Kid in the heart but the kid didn't as much as flinch, and then there are
multiple cases of graverobbery occuring in town. Manuel pays a visit to
Carmen's grave - and stakes her body. That brings the ire of Rio Kid onto
him, and now Manuel all of a sudden behaves like a coward, asks the local
sheriff for protection, and disappoints the hopes of the villagers who
believed he would turn the bad fortune of San José around like he had
promised. The next night though, Manuel faces Rio Kid in a duel ... and
manages to shoot him dead. Rio Kid's body disintegrates immediately, and
now Manuel reveals the whole story to the villagers - Rio Kid was actually
a vampire, which explains why he couldn't be killed by bullets, and he
drank the blood of those he killed, which explains the graverobbing. He
vampirized Carmen because he was in love with her, that's why Manuel had
to stake her corpse. And how did Manuel manage to shoot dead Rio Kid
anyhow? He used silver bullets, that's how! A nice low budget
blend of the Western and the vampire genre that actually manages to
include a vampire in a classic Western story without coming across as
totally goofy. And despite all the horseback riding and gunslinging, the
film is carried by a creepy atmosphere throughout (which probably makes
the plottwist that reveals Rio Kid is actually a vampire work so well). That
all said, El Pueblo Fantasma is far from perfect though, the cast
is almost uniformly subpar, the musical and comic interludes are too
frequent and destroy the film's pacing, and Rio Kid's vampire teeth look
ridiculous. But despite all this, the movie is well worth a look.
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