Bone Tomahawk (2015)

-
Day 89 Of Sobriety. 

Well, this was a pleasant surprise—although I’m not sure if the word “pleasant” is wholly appropriate, considering how disturbing some of the scenes in this movie are. I heard about this film when it was mentioned in passing on the excellent Discover the Horror podcast. It is generally described as a “horror western,” and that seems about right.

Set in the late 1900s in the “wild west,” the plot concerns a three-man posse led by an elderly sheriff who go to rescue some townspeople (including the wife of one of the posse members) from a clan of Native American cannibals.

I had never heard of the film, or the director, S. Craig Zahler. This was his first feature, but I see that he has directed several others that generally seem to be in the exploitation/crime/horror vein, and after watching Bone Tomahawk, I am really looking forward to checking them out. One of them is an entry in the Puppet Master series (none of which I have ever seen).

I’m guessing that my ignorance of Zahler and Bone Tomahawk is not widely shared, though, because the cast includes some pretty major stars, including Kurt Russell (as the sheriff) and Patrick Wilson (well known to horror fans for the Conjuring and Insidious franchises), and it also has a cameo by Sid Haig (star of numerous films by Jack Hill and Rob Zombie).
 
In terms of tone, the film put me in mind of a Quentin Tarantino film crossed with an Italian cannibal film from the 70s or 80s—almost to the extent that it seemed derivative of those elements—but hey, I’m not complaining because I thought it was excellent. Great acting, tense, engaging plot, some nasty shocking moments, and—that increasingly rare thing—a good ending! 

Highly recommended.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Boogeyman (2023)

-
Image
Day 75 of Sobriety. The Boogeyman is based on a Stephen King short story from 1978. I have never read the story, but having read a synopsis, it seems to have been greatly expanded for this movie. The plot concerns a family of three—a father and two daughters, who, while struggling to come to terms with the mother’s recent death, find themselves being preyed upon by a malevolent supernatural entity—the eponymous Boogeyman. The Boogeyman, as the name suggests, is the “monster under the bed” that haunts our childhood imaginations. As the protagonists in the movie discover, however, this Boogeyman is real. I think I am going to go off on a bit of a rant here, so please forgive me. I am kind of fed up with films like this—and it seems like so many of them have been made in the past couple of decades, and continue to be made. I’m talking about movies that are very competently made all round, with good acting, that start with a reasonably interesting premise and generate a good...
Read more

Suspiria (1977)

-
Image
Day 161 of Sobriety.  What could I possibly say about Dario Argento’s Suspiria that hasn’t been said already? Not much I don’t think. I’ve seen it several times before, but this re-viewing was prompted by wanting to watch it with my wife, because we recently watched (and enjoyed) Edgar Wright’s Last Night in Soho (2021) together, and I was keen to show her where a good deal of that film’s visual style originated. We also watched the 2018 remake of Suspiria a while back, and I think she liked it (I do). While I now consider the 1977 Suspiria to be a classic, I remember being underwhelmed when I first saw it in my late teens or early twenties—thinking it was OK, but being bewildered as to why it was held in such high acclaim. I think my only exposure to Dario Argento prior to that was via his involvement in Lamberto Bava’s Demons (1985), which was much more up my teenage alley. Although I am certain that the impression Suspiria made on me back then was greatly impaired by watchin...
Read more

Mill of the Stone Women (1960)

-
Image
Day 65 of Sobriety. Mill of the Stone Women is an Italian gothic horror film from 1960. It was directed by Giorgio Ferroni, who apparently only directed only one other horror film, but lots of action movies, including many “sword and sandal” movies. I guess the production companies must have been Italian too, but it is set in Holland and the bulk of the cast are either French or German. Despite its multinational qualities, however, it’s considered something of a classic of the Italian gothic cannon, so it has been on my radar for a while. The plot concerns a young journalist who is writing a story about an eccentric sculptor who lives in a windmill. In the course of his work he becomes infatuated with the sculptor’s mysterious daughter. The sculptor only produces grotesque representations of historical female figures in the process of either being executed or committing suicide—for example, we have Joan of Arc about to be immolated, Cleopatra holding the asp to her breas...
Read more