Tagline
“The Old West has older horrors.”
The Review
S. Craig Zahler's Bone Tomahawk is the most brutally effective horror-Western hybrid ever made. Kurt Russell leads a posse into the frontier to rescue townsfolk kidnapped by a tribe of cave-dwelling cannibals. For its first 90 minutes, the film is a deliberate, character-driven Western with superb dialogue and performances from Russell, Patrick Wilson, Matthew Fox, and Richard Jenkins. Then the rescue party reaches the cave, and the film delivers one of the most graphically violent sequences in cinema history. The bisection scene is unwatchable. Zahler earns the violence by making you care about the characters first.
Fun Fact
Zahler wrote the screenplay in just 12 days. The bisection scene was achieved entirely with practical effects and reportedly caused crew members to leave the set. Richard Jenkins' performance as the eccentric backup deputy Chicory is considered one of the finest supporting performances in any horror film of the decade.
Score Breakdown
Total Score
19/30
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