Bone Tomahawk

I think that, when it comes to film quality, there has never been a better horror movie with aboriginal cannibals. A week ago I complained that in Roth's Green Inferno hardly anything happens for half of the film. Here, the proportion between “introduction” and “action” is even more sober, but it doesn’t matter at all when you can see the difference in talent between Roth and the first-time director S. Craig Zahler. Ninety minutes are dedicated to introducing characters stubbornly determined to rescue the abducted inhabitants of a village. That’s enough time to sincerely start rooting for them, which also helped by the superb performances. The extremely brutal final half-hour then feels like a sucker punch, because the tribe of cannibals don’t fool around. It is very clear for everyone that these nice characters have walked into a place where they should have never been at all. I never imagined that the horror genre could blend so smoothly with the western. But Bone Tomahawk is both a really good western and really good horror. Very close to perfection. (25/10/2015)

Kurt Russell did not shave after filming The Hateful Eight - he let his beard grow a little more and embarked on another western. Only he left the vast snow plains and replaced them with sun-hot dusty rocks, perhaps to warm his bones (and actually his scalp). I would have wished it on him even if he hadn't made a great film, but he did. A brilliantly narrated film with interesting characters that you really get attached to, which all the time just knocks, hints, deliberately doesn't show everything and relies mainly on dialogue, only to literally tear off at the end and sink the poor viewer chained to the sofa into it even more. A boldly original film. If you know The Stalking Moon and you liked it, do not hesitate to watch this one. (16/10/2016)

A mix of proper western atmosphere (the sounds of the prairie, the small town, the sets) with an uncompromising carnage that is so explicit you see it in mainstream films only every 5 years or so (last time in The Hills Have Eyes 2), because it goes far beyond the normal. S. Craig Zahler focuses mostly on the characters, their symbiosis with the wildlife and their interaction with each other. The script is utterly unpredictable until just before the finale, when it turns out to be a slaughter. Cut or speed up the first half, stretch out the second half and it would probably be a bit more entertaining. (24/04/2016)

Bone Tomahawk is broadly discussed and written about as a horror movie in a western setting or, conversely, a western that turns into a horror movie at the climax. This is a one-dimensional view, however, as S. Craig Zahler created an inventive revisionist western in his exceptionally polished debut. The new concept in his interpretation does not mean dirt, nihilism and rejection of heroism, which deconstructionist films like Unforgiven fall back on by default. Zahler brings forth a much more inventive, well-developed and original grasp of the iconic genre. The masterfully written film re-establishes the western for today’s cynical and enlightened times in that it conceives its iconic attributes with a sophisticated perspective, while concurrently updating its basic narrative formulas and ethos. Therefore, the Indians here are not savages, but rather in the figure of a professor they become a biting personification of the wrongs committed by white men, which goes beyond the cowboys not only in being familiar with nature and its wonders, but also with the breadth of knowledge, wit and intelligence. Similarly, the protagonist’s wife can be sarcastic, rational and intelligent, while adhering to the role of object and trophy. Heroism inevitably becomes synonymous with limitations, ignorance and stubbornness. The film’s most essential roles are played by troglodytes as anonymous monsters who defy rationality, returning danger, mystery and, mainly, an element of the strange to life on the edge of civilisation. Those are the ideal erratic, bestial savages like the Indians in the tales of the Wild West, before their traditional depiction took on the foul taste of genocide. As a result, Bone Tomahawk can place in the main female character’s mouth a memorable and eloquent line that provides scathing commentary on the machismo of the film’s men and, at the same time, serves as a heroic celebration of their tenacity and determination. (11/07/2016)

The genre of horror western is definitely a term that deserves further study from the point of view of filmmaking. In this one, the director and screenwriter S. Craig Zahler didn’t overthink things and came up with the simplest story there might be. He placed a tribe of cannibalistic Indians into the Wild West – nobody has ever heard of them at all – and he also put together a rescue party that will try to rescue a chick from the tennets of these disgusting savages. End of story. But what’s important is what’s happening in the film. For instance, in the first half of the film, barely anything happens. Only the atmosphere keeps slowly but intensely building up, presenting a version of the Wild West involving a wild tribe that emits inhumane shrieks like giant sperm whales in mating season. But once our rescue party meets the tribe in a close encounter, that’s when the real suspense starts, and every now and then you get a proper piece of gore, which I am not going to discuss here any further so that I wouldn’t spoil the fun for you. That’s actually the only reason why the film is worth seeing. Well that and also there’s Kurt Russell, who fits into the charcter of the sheriff perfectly. But what role doesn’t he fit into perfectly… (30/01/2017)