Bone Tomahawk * * * *

This is an interesting film: Like The Voices it didn’t get released in Australia - also like The Voices it’s a bit gruesome, but certainly not enough to cause it to be rejected.  I think it was a just too quirky for the Australian Distributors to take on.

It’s a Cowboy film. A bad man comes into town.  He’s shot by the sheriff.  The lady doctor of the town is called in to attend to him at the sheriff's office.  The sheriff has to leave them alone whilst he attends to other business. When he comes back the prisoner is missing, the second deputy is missing and the lady doctor is missing. All have been abducted by troglodyte Indians so bad, so evil, so crazy that other Indian tribes refuse to acknowledge them. Apparently, before stumbling into town, the prisoner had violated their grave site so now the troglodyte Indians want to violate him.

The Sheriff and his geriatric first deputy and the towns playboy, along with the lady Doctor's husband, decide to go rescue them. The Lady Doctor's husband is recovering from a wounded leg and can’t walk properly but that isn’t going to stop him.

It’s got an atmosphere about it which is different from most cowboy and Indian films. At times it’s quiet and contemplative. It has a sense of menace as the four men get closer to their objective.  

As they get closer the Troglodyte Indians start to show themselves. They’re not nice. They’ve got no culture, no manners, no sensitivity to pain - yours or their own.They’re covered in white ash, make frightening noises and have brutal piercings (I know….you’ve met some young people just like that, but believe me, these guys are frightening!)  The name of the film refers to their weapon of choice - tomahawks made of bone - with which they can butcher and dissect human carcasses with great efficiency.  

Sometimes the film has a fifties western feel about it with scenes which are stage like in their shooting, and interiors which are obviously studio based.

The dialogue between the four men who have set out to rescue the captives from the troglodytes is as interesting and insightful as their character development  - which never stops - just like getting to know someone and seeing your presumptions about them undermined as they say or do the unexpected.

The writer-director of Bone Tomahawk S.Craig Zahler is someone I know little about, but apparently he is also a novelist and a musician in a successful heavy metal band. He also wrote the music for the film.  The haunting song that plays as the credit rolls,  “Four Doomed Men Ride Out” immediately sent me on a chase as to what it is. It sounds like it comes from some weird forgotten cowboy opera.  Apparently it was composed by S. Craig Zahler.

With Patrick  Wilson and Kurt Russell agreeing to star in this film his talent is clearly being recognised.  I look forward to more work from S.Craig Zahler.