Bone Tomahawk (2015)

Bone Tomahawk (R)

A posse sets out from the town of Bright Hope in pursuit of some mysteriously sinister natives who have made off with a nurse, a deputy and their charge, a murdering vagrant.  With an aging backup deputy, a paranoid man with a healthy trigger finger and a husband with a shattered leg, the local Sheriff heads out with his crew with no backup, no guide and no real hope of succeeding in the auspicious debut of director/writer S. Craig Zahller's surprisingly successful Horror/Western genre mashup.

A still mustachioed Kurt Russell (Hateful Eight) leads the men and the cast as the veteran Sheriff Hunt with supporting roles filled by fantastic character actor Richard Jenkins (The Cabin in the Woods), out-of-his-element Patrick Wilson (The Watchmen) and quirky Matthew Fox (Lost).  This rousing group has a great script to play with and better repartee, and like the film are better than the sum of their parts.  Jenkins in particular uses his great personal charms to enliven the role of dim-witted backup Deputy Chickory.  The same can not be said for the female roles where a competent line reading has been sacrificed for a pretty face.  The writing however is not to be blamed, as the jolly palaver and old timey vernacular of the dialog can attest to be the strongest asset of the film.

Not so strong are the visuals, a flat arid desert may be our playground but something perhaps could have been done to liven up the proceedings.  Perhaps it was an attempt to accentuate the stark realism that underlies the plot, but more likely it is a symptom of the independent (and cheap) nature of the production that everything looks so one dimensional and backyard like.  The posse's monstrous foes, a pack of cannibalistic troglodytes that even other Native-American fear come straight out of a 1980's D&D rule book.  Alien, immutable and stoic, these cave-Indians are built like body builders and sound like video-game werewolves (which is quite silly). However the overall mythical, adventure-gone wrong feel to the plot lends itself to these creatures existing in a world where Tombstone meets Beowulf with a dash of Hostel.

This is where the genre mixing comes into full force.  Bone Tomahawk is a long film, at over 2 hours with most of the action in the last half hour it can be a trek.  In fact most of the beginning of the film can be seen as a ill-conceived camping trip through the badlands, and if it wasn't for the sharp characterization and pristine chatter among the group it would have sink into tedious sands from the wieght of pretension.  Instead it builds tension quite slowly until the quick sudden release of bow strings and triggers, then blood bursts and appendages sever (the great practical effects show where the film makers allegiances lie) as it's genre mashup goes into full effect.  To go 2 hours of tromping through the trail to sudden, violent, in your face charnel house really places the viewer squarely into the terrified boots of these law-loving prairie folk who are about to witness it up close and personal.  It is shocking, brutal and very effective for both parties, and better than it has any right to be.

It's shortcomings easily outpaced by it's strengths, Bone Tomahawk is an auspicious start to a writer's career, one with interesting ideas and a zest for dialog.  The movie itself is aptly named, the bony instrument would be blunt and cheap and yet just as effective as any expensive steel ax at cleaving, maiming or slaughtering, probably more painfully so.

7.5 Corn Chowders out of 10 (GOOD)