BONE TOMAHAWK (2015)

 Bone Tomahawk (2015)

Summary: Four men set out in the Wild West to rescue a group of captives from cannibalistic cave dwellers.

I love the simplicity of this summary. The movie followed in the same suite. It didn't try to do anything more. No need to try to shock it's viewers or throw some unnecessary plot twists. It followed one simple story and stayed with it the whole time and was very well done.

Any movie where the opening scene is a man slicing the throats of dead bodies will definitely draw my attention right out of the gate. And unlike some of the other movies I have seen recently, this one kept my attention the whole way through.


This was a great combination of horror and western. It was like Tombstone meets Hills Have Eyes/Cannibal Holocaust. A doctor was called in to the police station to treat a mysterious stranger in town who was shot in the leg and than arrested. The next morning the doctor, deputy, and stranger are missing. The sheriff heads out to find them, leading a search party consisting of another deputy, the doctor's husband, and a man who volunteered to help because he was the one who got the doctor so he felt responsible. They go deep into the desert where they are confronted by a cannibalistic tribe living in the hills.

It has a semi-slow pace to it. It doesn't drag on to the point where interest is lost but it spends a decent amount of time and character development and making sure it really gets the story across. This movie is very well written with both a very believable plot as well as very convincing dialogue.


The acting was phenomenal from the top of the cast to the bottom. There were really good cameos by James Tolkan (Back to the Future), Michael Pare (Bad Moon), Sean Young (Blade Runner), David Arquette (Scream), Jamison Newlander (The Lost Boys), and Sid Haig (Devil's Rejects). It's generally been my experience that when a movie is loaded with cameos like this one is, they normally can;t afford a solid leading cast. Luckily, this was not the case here. The cast is lead by Kurt Russell (The Thing), Patrick Wilson (Insidious), Richard Jenkins (Cabin in the Woods), Matthew Fox (Lost), and Lili Simmons (Banshee). There was not a single role in this movie was done poorly, and this includes the actors who portrayed the cannibals; most notably Robert Mukes (House of 1000 Corpses), Brandon Molale (The Collection), and Geno Segers (Banshee).

Unlike most cannibal movies I have seen, this was not an over the top gore fest. In fact, there was very little involved at all. However, the few scenes that were gory were very well done... and one of the scenes could be a bit difficult for “normal” people to watch. 


I only found 2 issues in the movie that I wasn't a big fan of. For one, the hostages were being held captive in what may have been the most easily escapable cage I've ever seen. The end did leave a little bit to be desired as well. While it didn't leave any lose ends, it did fall a bit flat. By no means was it bad enough to not watch the movie though. This is one of the better “straight to DVD” movies I've had to review all year. I enjoyed it so much that I didn't even mind that I paid to order it on-demand. I may just have to go out and buy this one.

                         
reviewed by Bobby

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