Bone Tomahawk

There’s a reason I never heard of Bone Tomahawk. Not a big fan of horror films. Bone Tomahawk is a horror film dressed for the west and mounted on horseback. S. Graig Zahler wrote a horror story he couldn’t profitably produce on film as written so ‘cowboyed-up’ it’s a western. They got Kurt Russell to play the lead, which convinced me to do this post. Not sure how that happened to either of us. Maybe Kurt needed the money. No excuse for me.

Two desperados discover and loot a tribal burial ground. One of them gets killed. The other, a man named Purvis, escapes to the town of Bright Hope where he has a minor gun-scrape with Sheriff Franklin Hunt (Russell). Hunt sends his Deputy Chicory for the doctor to attend the wounded outlaw. The doctor’s daughter and assistant Samantha arrives to care for the wounded. Hunt leaves her in the sheriff’s office with Purvis and Deputy Nick while he investigates the murder of a local stable boy. On returning, Hunt finds Smantha, Purvis, and Nick missing. A tell-tale arrow leads to the conclusion the trio have been abducted by . . . ready for this? A rogue tribe of cannibals known as Troglodytes (not making this up), who inhabit a remote valley.

After the fashion of The Searchers (with apologies to the Johns, Ford, and Wayne), Hunt organizes a rescue party posse with Deputy Chicory, gunfighter Brooder, and Samantha’s husband, who is nursing a wound of his own. The rescuers are ambushed leading to loss of their horses and further injury to Samantha’s husband who is left behind. Hunt, Chicory and Brooder make it to the valley on foot where they are ambushed. Trogs kill Brooder and capture Hunt and Chicory. They find Samantha and Nick in captivity; Purvis having already served for supper. Hunt, Chicory, and Samantha are then treated to a glimpse of fate as Nick is . . . let’s just say, comes to a savage end before being consumed. Cutting to the chase without any more cutting than necessary, Hunt’s attempt to free his friends ends heroically if badly for him. Samanth’s recovered husband rescues her and Chicory to some version of . . . ever after.

In a classic example of ‘What do I know?’, critics and film festivals gave Bone Tomahawk positive reviews for Russell’s performance, “slow burning” screenplay, cinematography, and musical score. Musical score mind you. Some speculated the cowboy cannibal genre might not work for everyone. Now there you have profound critical insight if ever there was profound critical insight.

Next Week: Trail Street
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Ride easy,
Paul