When word came that veteran actor/full-time bad-ass Kurt Russell was starring in the latest Quentin Tarantino film, a western called The Hateful Eight, I was soooo eager to see it. Alas, the movie’s runtime (over three hours) and my inability (as usual) to find the free time to go see it meant I’d have to wait for the movie to hit the home video market.
But as that movie neared release, seemingly out of nowhere I saw a listing for Bone Tomahawk, another western starring Kurt Russell. Intrigued, I read up on the movie and found, to my delight, that it was not only a western, but a horror film as well. Two very intriguing genres mixed together.
Naturally, I put the movie on my Netflix cue but it popped up for free viewing for Amazon prime members so, last night, I watched it.
With some caveats which I’ll get into later, for the most part I really liked what I saw.
As eager as I was to see the film, going into it I was also a little worried. With Bone Tomahawk we have yet another of those low budget direct-to-video type movies and, unfortunately, my last experience with one, the horrid Killing Season (read all about it), wasn’t a ringing endorsement for these types of films.
Bone Tomahawk starts with a pair of bloody “bush-whackers” (David Arquette and Sid Haig in what amount to cameo roles) attack and kill a group of three campers, their intent being to rob them of whatever possessions they carry. However, in the course of the robbery a gunshot is fired and that brings someone on horses (the law?) their way.
Fearing being discovered and arrested, the duo head deep into the bushes and, while they lose their would be captors, hear eerie shrieks in the wind. They eventually stumble upon a strange rock formation surrounded by the skulls of animals and…humans. Once past that formation they are attacked by strange, shadowy figures. One of the bushwhackers is killed while the other, younger bushwhacker stumbles away.
Eleven days later, that younger bushwhacker makes his way to a town and raises the suspicions of Chicory, the town’s deputy sheriff (Richard Jenkins). He and Sheriff Hunt (Kurt Russell) confront the man in the town’s bar and rapidly determine he is a criminal. The Sheriff shoots the man in the leg as he tries to flee and takes him to jail.
To treat his injury, the Sheriff asks dandily-dressed Brooder (Matthew Fox) to get the town’s doctor. It turns out the doctor is Samantha (Lili Simmons) who is married to Arthur (Patrick Wilson), a man currently recovering from a broken leg sustained while trying to fix their home’s roof during a storm.
Samantha tends to the bushwhacker and is left with a third deputy to care for the man overnight. It is during that night, however, that those eerie howls are once again heard. The shadowy creatures that attacked the bushwhackers have followed the surviving man to the town. In the morning, the Sheriff finds a stableboy viciously murdered and the bushwhacker, the third deputy, and Samantha are gone.
The Sheriff finds an arrow left behind by the kidnappers and determines they were Indians. Not just any Indians, though, but “troglodytes”, a cannibalistic, animalistic group that is as far removed from civilization as can be. Sheriff Hunt, Deputy Chicory, Brooder, and the injured Arthur ride out toward where the troglodytes are supposed to live, intent on rescuing Samantha from their clutches.
The remainder of the movie involves the trip to the troglodyte’s home and what happens there.
Though the film is touted as a horror/western, the movie’s structure mostly recalls the classic John Wayne film The Searchers married, toward the end, with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
As with The Searchers, our heroes set out to find and rescue a kidnapped woman. The trip involves diverse characters whose interactions form the backbone of the story. We feel for these characters which makes the dangers they face toward the end all the more terrifying. The concluding act of the film, as mentioned, plays out like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and we’re given one particularly gruesome killing (if you’ve seen the movie, you know what I’m talking about) along with a really bizarre human subculture.
As I said above, I generally enjoyed the film but I can see why the studios were hesitant to release it to theaters and spend the large amount needed to advertise the product.
At a runtime of two hours and twelve minutes, Bone Tomahawk is an awfully long film to sit through and I’ll be very blunt here: It is at least twenty minutes or so too long. There are some scenes here and there (including a love-making scene between Arthur and Samantha and a somewhat humorous appearance by the town’s Mayor and his domineering wife) that could easily been trimmed from the feature without audiences missing them.
Further, though the film is touted as a horror/western, the reality is that other than the opening and climax the film plays out more like a semi-comic (there are some very funny lines) and slow moving walk through the woods to get to the bad guys and rescue the damsel in distress rather than an actual horror film.
According to IMDB, “the final movie represents the first draft of the script”. Though I don’t know how many times the author went over that script before delivering this “first draft” and while I really enjoy the way the characters talk (the dialogue in the movie is a highlight), I’ll repeat what I said above: This movie maybe could have used a couple of more drafts to trim some of the fat and tighten the story’s focus.
Ultimately, Bone Tomahawk is an odd, but certainly not unpleasant bird of a film. An at times very laid back comic slice of life western which features a genuinely gruesome horror movie climax. I don’t think Bone Tomahawk is for everyone but if what you’ve read above intrigues you, you’ll want to give the film a look.
