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- 2015
- Not Rated
- RLJ Entertainment
- 2 h 12 m
- 2015
- Not Rated
- RLJ Entertainment
- 2 h 12 m
Summary When a group of cannibal savages kidnaps settlers from the small town of Bright Hope, an unlikely team of gunslingers, led by Sheriff Franklin Hunt (Kurt Russell), sets out to bring them home. But their enemy is more ruthless than anyone could have imagined, putting their mission – and survival itself – in serious jeopardy. [RLJ Entertai...
Directed By: S. Craig Zahler
Written By: S. Craig Zahler
- 2015
- Not Rated
- RLJ Entertainment
- 2 h 12 m
- 2015
- Not Rated
- RLJ Entertainment
- 2 h 12 m
Bone Tomahawk
72
7.2
Where to Watch
Summary When a group of cannibal savages kidnaps settlers from the small town of Bright Hope, an unlikely team of gunslingers, led by Sheriff Franklin Hunt (Kurt Russell), sets out to bring them home. But their enemy is more ruthless than anyone could have imagined, putting their mission – and survival itself – in serious jeopardy. [RLJ Entertai...
Directed By: S. Craig Zahler
Written By: S. Craig Zahler
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 17 Critic Reviews
72
100% Positive
17 Reviews
17 Reviews
0% Mixed
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 17 Critic Reviews
72
100% Positive
17 Reviews
17 Reviews
0% Mixed
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Bone Tomahawk is a proper Western, a proper horror movie, and by combining the two, becomes something else entirely, and proves hugely enjoyable for it.
Bone Tomahawk is terrifying and strange, to be sure, but it’s the old-fashioned veneer that makes it beautiful.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 249 User Ratings
7.2
80% Positive
198 Ratings
198 Ratings
14% Mixed
34 Ratings
34 Ratings
7% Negative
17 Ratings
17 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 249 User Ratings
7.2
80% Positive
198 Ratings
198 Ratings
14% Mixed
34 Ratings
34 Ratings
7% Negative
17 Ratings
17 Ratings
Must see. Underrated. Shocking. Great ending. Funny. Endearing characters. Definitely a horror movie.
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Chilling, effective horror-western with a fine cast at the top of their game and a brilliantly frightening screenplay that will keep you glued to your seat until the end. The horror-western is a virtually unexploited genre (easily understood when you consider attempts such as “Billy the Kid vs. Dracula” and “Jesse James Meets Frankenstein’s Daughter”), but “Bone Tomahawk” excels both as a western and as a horror film. I can only think of two other successful attempts to marry the western with elements of the horror film: “The Stalking Moon” (1968) and “The Missing” (2003), neither of which succeed on the level of this film. Kurt Russell and Richard Jenkins are brilliant here, and Russell remains one of the finest, most underrated actors of our time.
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Bone Tomahawk is not your typical Western retread, to be sure. If someone had told me that it was adapted from one of Joe R. Lansdale’s genre-hopping horror stories I would have believed it. Kudos then to director Zahler, who on his very first film, buries that g--damn tomahawk deep in the audience’s memory.
Mr. Russell is far from the only reason to see this unexpected low-budget treat, a witty fusion of western, horror and comedy that gallops to its own beat. That rhythm is dictated entirely by the writer and director, S. Craig Zahler, a novelist and musician who flips genre conventions upside-down and cares more about character than body count.
A cult item par excellence, Bone Tomahawk does for the Western what Gareth Edwards did for Monsters. Long, slow and low-budget, Bone Tomahawk is also disturbingly tense, hyper-violent, and destined to attract an adoring fanboy following.
S. Craig Zahler’s horror-Western hybrid Bone Tomahawk is a strange movie, one that might take more than one watch to fully understand. Not that it’s deliberately obscure, or has a plot too complicated to follow the first time around. It’s actually a pretty straightforward film, albeit one filled with eccentric choices.
One wishes that S. Craig Zahler had more explicitly faced the cultural demons lingering within his premise, attempting to exorcise them.
Destined to be a modern classic. If you are a fan of well written,and directed westerns, and horror movies, this is one you won't soon forget. The character development was amazing. There wasn't any weak link in the acting whatsoever. Everyone brought their "A" game. No amateurs here. Kurt Russell is a powerhouse, and this is possibly his best role to date. The range of emotion goes from jovial to horrific in the bat of an eye. There was also an appearance by Sig Haig, in a small but memorable role. This is one people will be talking about.
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A film I was really looking forward to that ended up disappointing for reasons I didn't quite expect. One of the things I've always heard about writer/director S. Craig Zahler's films is that they're always impeccably written, with a lot of the character and plotting work feeling as authentic as possible. This couldn't be more true in "Bone Tomahawk's" case. The characters all feel as textured and as fleshed out as can be, featuring specific quirks, worldviews, and ways of speaking that really help add to the overall sense of realism in the film. Also operating on the keyword "realism" is the narrative, which unfurls itself at a pace and fashion that's cautious, but also exhilaratingly unpredictable. So where do things go wrong for me? Well, this is a very unique film in terms of style. Surprisingly so, in fact. There's little to no score, a mostly refreshing lack of standard editing and blocking techniques, and very little actual goings-on until the climactic final act. This hyperrealistic flavor of cinematic filmmaking really makes the scenes where things are transpiring feel utterly thrilling and unpredictable, with the deemphasis of music and traditional editing techniques really putting you in a unique place as an audience member. But, again, once that's coupled with the tremendous amount of downtime and traveling scenes we have to witness, this sort of style can make for some rather potent spells of sluggishness. It's a completely legitimate and even momentarily brilliant first effort, but I'm more excited to see how this filmmaker grows from this admittedly imperfect experience.
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I think it's unique and has a nice Indie/ shoestring budget vibe, that pushes the genres a bit outside the box. Cool stuff. But, this film is boring and doesn't really have anything to say. Credit for uniqueness, but relies too much on the freakish baddies being "so **** up, man!!" It's OK. The extreme aspects of the story help it stand out and grab an audience, but they are also basically a gimmick. What's the point of this? Oh, right, "Crazy ****, bro!!" zzzzzz
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I have created an account just for that movie as it has been a long time I haven't see such a bad movie. I feel sorry for the actors and all the good work that has been done to produce this movie. The story is bad, drag for hours and the overall experience is boring as hell. I still gave it a go as I saw positive reviews- they must be friends or worked in the movie- as no one normal would rate it as a good movie. The hook is "cannibal and western" and that's exhaustive- don't be fooled and save 2 hours of your lifetime.
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Is it reasonable to expect that a movie which is rated above 90 is simply superlative? Well this one was and it falls a long way short of superlative, are file reviewers a waste of space? A lot of negative reviews are the result of one actor being chopped in half in one scene, frankly I think that is gross over reaction by the prudish puritan fraternity and really has no bearing on the film in its entirety.
The film falls down in my opinion because it is so jarring in it's presentation of the wild west, it is set somewhere around 1870. What is jarring is that the director has managed to insert so much 2015 in circa 1870.
The opening scene of 2 deadbeats, with audio only you wold swear they had a 21st century education, being able to discuss how many veins in a person's neck was not common knowledge, I'd be prepared to wager, back in 1870, even in 2019 probably only some doctors could answer that. Shortly after the opening scene we have a shot of the village announcement board, announcing the village name and population of around 250. It looked like a 21st century tourist trap, I thought then that the movie was a spoof. Then we move into the house of one of the main actors, at first you think it's a dump, old unpainted floor boards with a one inch gap between each one and then you see the above floor furnishings which could have been taken from Vouge magazine.
And in this bustling of around 250 people we have 2 doctors and people prancing around dressed like they are headed for the Oscars. It is so out of place that it just jars you. People, in 1870, who lived in villages with a population of 250 would have maybe a general store and that's it. But wait, this town has a sheriff and 2 deputies, more than 10% of the entire population.
One bloke has a leg injury which is very opaque, I am never sure whether it is broken or just lacerated but he can walk for days on end with a crutch. It is very silly and unrealistic. They decide to travel at night and somehow manage to navigate to where they want to go, I particularly liked using a telescope in the dead of night - really gave me a sense these guys knew what they were doing.
So we are back to familiar territory, people being in places and doing things that could not exist or are just not possible.
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Awards
Fright Meter Awards
• 1 Win & 6 Nominations
Sitges - Catalonian International Film Festival
• 3 Wins & 4 Nominations
Fangoria Chainsaw Awards
• 1 Win & 3 Nominations
