Creek (2007)

A bunch of rockabilly nerds heading to a horror convention decide to stop at a creek to pan for gold. When they balk at the price of fifteen dollars a piece, the owner says they can pan for free if they don’t take any of gold they find.  They agree, and he warns them not to get caught up in the greed.  As they walk down to the creek, loser AJ says if they find gold, the owner will never know.

When they try to leave, they discover their car is gone. Oddly enough they don’t question why the establishment is boarded up, has a no trespassing sign, and seems to have been empty for years.  That should be a huge topic of discussion since they were in the building and talking to the owner. How did it get boarded up? Why does it look abandoned when it looked lived in earlier?  What sort of madness is this?

As they split up and wander through the ghost town looking for the owner, people stumble across gold and greed overcomes them.  This results in ghosts coming after them and trying to murder them.  There are also some flashbacks, including one in which a current day stripper is back in the 1880s gold town working as a prostitute.  At first I thought it was some sort of time loop since the kids had seen one of the ghosts from the 1800s, but then I realized the filmmakers just gave up.

There is also the girl who doesn’t understand that ghosts don’t appear on command. It’s not like going to an amusement park where performances are scheduled.  Then there is AJ, who is incredibly unappealing but who multiple women are fighting over. Why?

But the most amazing part of the movie is when one of the group dies, and the others bury him in the ghost town. WHY???  If you didn’t kill him, then don’t hide the body.  Burying him makes you look one hundred percent guilty of murder.

Kids love panning for gold

There’s a figure in the background walking across
the road but it’s never mentioned. 

Learn how to smoke, you maroon.

The worst representation of being hit in the mouth.

The effects team did an nice job on the dead body.

You’re burying him?  You may as well say you murdered him.

Dorky rockabilly AJ thinks he’s cool.

This is supposed to be gold

No one questions why the building they were
in an hour ago is now boarded up.