2015 film disturbingly mixes frontier and horror genres together
In a given year, there are around 600–800 feature films released in North America. You’d be surprised to learn that only a fraction of those movies are released by Disney or involve superheroes (or are released by Disney AND involve superheroes).
I’m lucky if I can see 100 to 150 films annually, meaning that there are scores of movies that I haven’t seen and lots more that were completely below my radar. Bone Tomahawk is one such film.
Released in 2015, Bone Tomahawk is a competently made Western by novelist and musician (and now, filmmaker) S. Craig Zahler. This film is his directorial debut. After watching, it is immediately clear that Zahler is one of those people everyone hates for being hyper-competent and artistic. What he accomplishes in terms of filmmaking, on his first try, is astonishing.
The film is more than just watchable—it’s entertaining, thoughtful, terrifying, and damn good. While some may question the unlikely marriage of gruesome horror and traditional western fare, Zahler makes the two fit together naturally. It’s not that far-fetched, to be honest. Life on the frontier was often horrible, as anyone who ever watched Little House on the Prairie can attest. Zahler simply makes the horror more visceral.
That viscera is immediately placed at the forefront of the film in the opening scenes. We see the aftermath of a robbery in the wilderness, committed by two drifters. As they sift through the belongings of the victims, we’re treated to the distinct sound of buzzing flies and a slit throat. The pair are dirty, but speak in that distinct vernacular popular in western film, precise and formal, with a hint of malice.
While avoiding riders on the trail, the pair stumble across a burial site for a nearby tribe. One is immediately killed for this trespass, while the other (David Arquette) bumbles away, knocking over carefully place stones in his escape. Cut to the town of Bright Hope, a western town name if there ever was one, which is protected by Sheriff Franklin Hunt (Kurt Russell) and his backup deputy Chicory (Richard Jenkins).
Chicory reports witnessing a vagrant bury his clothing and other items in a hole outside of town and Hunt suspects the man is up to no good. He’s right, of course. It’s the same murderous drifter from before. After some gunplay, the vagabond is down and taken to jail. Hunt calls for the doctor, but as in most westerns, the doctor is too drunk to respond. His assistant, Samantha (Lili Simmons), wife of the local foreman (Patrick Wilson), is brought in instead.
Sometime in the night, while Samantha is tending to her charge, the native tribe from earlier comes and snatches them from the jailhouse, along with Nick, another deputy tasked with keeping them all safe. A posse of sorts is assembled, but the local professor, himself a native, warns that the group they hunt is not like the other tribes of the plains. He describes them as troglodytes, cannibals who are as separate from men as possible.
This is all great stuff, acted supremely well. The film is expertly paced, slow and deliberate, hinting more at the macabre than delivering it in plain sight. At least, until it delivers it in plain sight. Before all of that, which occupies a small amount of the third act, the film is character driven. The audience develops a relationship with the men on screen. That connection, those small moments where we learn about who they are, mean everything to the narrative. It’s clear that Zahler is a novelist—he knows how to give audiences enough to care but not too much to slow down the story.
As I mentioned, the story eventually goes off the deep end. The realism used for most of the film allows for the final ghastly act to be more than shocking. I’ve seen more than my fair share of gore, although I try to avoid films where the gore is the point, but the ending is shocking. It doesn’t detract from the overall story, though. In fact, I’d argue it enhances it. The shock is the point, as the characters are experiencing events alongside the audience.
Bone Tomahawk is filmmaking at its best. It just happens to be one of those films that might have slipped by you. I’d advise film fans to correct that oversight immediately.