David Robbins
© 2016

   
     With all the hype over Hollywood’s endless stream of blockbusters, you might have missed a gem that bucks the tide of gazillion-dollar CGI. No, I’m not talking about THE FARCE AWAKENS. I’m referring to a movie that seamlessly blends the iconic Western with riveting Horror.

     First, my up-front admission that this film rang all my bells. If you’re a fan of my WILDERNESS series, you’ll understand why. Remember mountain man Nate King going up against the ‘red-headed cannibals’ of Paiute legend? Well, someone has taken the essence of the Native American accounts and infused them into a Western set in the traditional milieu.
[Troglodytes in the Old West. They not only kill you, they eat you.]
 
     That someone is a gentleman by the name of S. Craig Zahler, and he has done a superb job. It helps considerably that he was able to round up a cast that includes Kurt Russell, Patrick Wilson, Matthew Fox and Richard Jenkins, among others. Those four form the core ensemble, as it were.

     Logging in at over two hours, this isn’t a mind-numbing blitzkrieg of unrelenting action. BONE TOMAHAWK builds slowly, letting you get to know the characters. You care about them, which makes the final half-hour of suspense and terror absolutely riveting.
[The cowboy poet. Sort of. Take his wife and he will come for you. Count on it.]


     Imagine a town at the edge of unexplored wilderness. Imagine that ‘something’ has cause to pay the town a visit in the dead of night, and several people are abducted. The sheriff forms a posse to save them, and ventures into the heart of darkness.

     Kurt Russell plays the sheriff with the same forceful presence he once played Snake Plissken. Patrick Wilson is a cowboy who will stop at nothing to rescue the one he loves. Matthew Fox is a gunman in the Bat Masterson mold, although far more cold-hearted. Richard Jenkins, as Russell’s motormouth ‘backup deputy’, alleviates the tension with bursts of hilarity.



[Ring his bell and he will shoot you. Seriously. Watch the movie to see what I mean.]

     The script is above-average. The dialogue at times crackles. The characters are richly drawn, and the acting is excellent. I’m not the only one who thinks so. The movie has a score of 87% on Rotten Tomatoes, which, if you don’t know, means it’s really good.

     So if you’re up for something different, try BONE TOMAHAWK. And the next time you hear something howl in the wilderness, don’t blame me if it gives you a shiver.
P.S. Did you happen to catch the second season of FARGO? (Patrick Wilson was in it) Then you might like to know that the actor who played the 'ultimate badass', Hanzee---Zahn McLarnon---has a cameo in BONE TOMAHAWK.