Review of Bone Tomahawk (2015) by Cory T — 22 Oct 2015

A studiously romanticized vision of western civilization before the Industrial Age and a bountifully reptilian cannibalistic B-movie, S. Craig Zahler remarkably hybridizes the two with the effortlessness of a pro.

In fact, he might ostracize gorehounds who are bloodthirsty for savagery because he seems preoccupied with the Howard Hawks oater over the gristle. However, the delayed patience of the Fangoria fans will be beguiled with graphic scalping and a wishbone dissection.

He possesses a keen instinct for multi-dimensional characters (Jenkin's hobbled, widowed deputy Chicory and Matthew Fox's aristocratic gunslinger who mercifully euthanizes his mangled horse). Fox hasn't hopped from the television set to celluloid until now as his anti-Apache hero really seizes the show here ("I'm far too vain to live as a cripple") amidst a tremendous ensemble.

Akin to Aaron Sorkin and Quentin Tarantino, he doesn't neglect rich exchanges ("If that was a gust, then it learned an instrument"). Veterans of low-budget filmmaking, drifters David Arquette and Sid Haig are our emcees into the "savage" netherworld which is notable for the burg's cricket-chirping desolation surrounding it.

Music is virtually nonexistent, it is acoustic with the echoing sounds of the canyons and coyotes in the distance. Leisurely but not somnambulistic, the film is a rugged affidavit to Clint Eastwood's sarsaparilla westerns with the occidental hallmarks of an exhausted saloon piano player who commissions a reverse discount to play their songs.

It might be unlikely and contradictory but the startlingly seismic, slice-and-dice horror elements also synchronize heartily into the souffle (ex. A stable boy's arrow-piercing death). The troglodytes are menacingly, briefly encamped in the shadows.

The supernatural howl of the cave-dwellers starkly hemorrhages the authenticity though. Kurt Russell must be the John Wayne de jeur between this and 'The Hateful Eight'. This is one of the most auspicious debuts in eons.