Bone Tomahawk (2015) (English Language)

Review

132min

Genre:     Western, Horror

Director:  S. Craig Zahler

Cast:       Kurt Russell, Patrick Wilson, Matthew Fox…and more

Writer:    S. Craig Zahler

-Synopsis-

Following a mysterious kidnapping in small-town old American west, a group of townsfolk form a posse to track down the cave-dwelling savages that took their people in this unique western/horror/drama indie from 1st time writer/director S. Craig Zahler.

A sort of indie mashup of John Ford’s classic ‘The Searchers‘ and Wes Craven’s ‘The Hills Have Eyes’, ‘Bone Tomahawk’ is a genuine slow-burn Western for two thirds of the film which focuses on fleshing out the characters in a posse of rugged men, killing time on their search across the deserts of the American west. But things take a sudden and gruesome turn when they stumble upon what they were searching for as ‘Bone Tomahawk’ takes as distinct turn to the horrific and into exploitation B-movie territory.

We suspect that most of the budget went towards securing a cast of accomplished stage & screen actors on whose performances ‘Bone Tomahawk’ heavily relies on to keep you engaged, led by Kurt Russell sporting the same impressive facial hair we saw in ‘The Hateful Eight’ in the year where he finally morphed into the new John Wayne.

Writer/director S. Craig Zahler is also the ‘Bone Tomahawk’ composer which sounds impressive until you realize that apart from a couple of short dramatic trekking scenes, this film has no real soundtrack or score to speak of.

But that’s just another thing that separates ‘Bone Tomahawk’ from most comparable movies and gives it an uneasy minimalist feel which leaves little to distract from the copious dialogue and graphic brutality when it comes.

Clearly ‘Bone Tomahawk’ has its issues and limitations, an uninspired narrative with low production values to bring it to life, a very slow pace and lack of suspense which might be an issue for some, and the sudden brutality of the final third which may be an issue for others.

But somehow with a distinct lack of experience and very limited resources, debuting writer/director S. Craig Zahler manages to craft a fascinating little indie hybrid that for all its limitations is hard to take your eyes off… even when you think you should.

The Bottom Line…

Despite being hampered narrative flaws and a lack of resources, ‘Bone Tomahawk’ boasts a refreshing minimalist style and interesting enough characters to keep an audience morbidly fascinated about what may happen to them, an original and noteworthy film debut from S. Craig Zahler.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Similar films you may like (Home Video)

The Searchers (1956)

John Wayne stars as a tough confederate civil war veteran scouring the American Southwest to find his niece who was abducted by a Comanche tribe in legendary director John Ford’s iconic Western.

Directed by John Ford and starring  John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter and Vera Miles among others.

Comments

comments

Comments are closed.