The Burrowers
2008
Action (Horror)
Rated: R
Running Time: 96 minutes
Starring: Clancy Brown, Sean Patrick Thomas, William Mapother
Directed By: J.T. Petty
Rating: 4 out of 10
Outline
In the late eighteen hundreds on the Dakota plains an unexplained kidnapping has a group of men crossing the plains to recover the stolen settlers. The problem is the plains are not as uninhabited as they think.
Review
Taking place in the remote territories in the Dakotas the Burrowers blends two genres that normally are not mixed. Director and writer J.T. Petty puts his creative foot forward and combines the rugged terrain and story of a western but combines it with the blood and gore of a futuristic science fiction flick. The western portion of the film is great with the remote landscape and old time feel. It leads the viewer to imagine that horror could easily happen in such a remote a location. As the film wears on though the buildup seems too long in the making. An opening scene of terror on a frontier settlement offers little in the way of fright but does set up the movie nicely. It makes the viewer wonder at what sort of monsters are we dealing with. A group ultimately must deal with this unknown menace and head out into the bleak countryside. The stories dialogue and character interaction isn’t the worst and if the film carried on as just a western I could actually see this film working but the addition of the Burrowers was ill conceived and even worse lacking realism and terror. Like most horror films of this ilk the director leaves the viewer to imagine what sort of creature could carry off grown men in the middle of the night. Eerie guttural sounds and glimpses of discolored flesh has the viewer imagining the worst. When the creatures are actually presented in this film the lack of budget and creativity are decidedly poor. I will not go into detail but the creatures kill in a peculiar way to try and increase the frights but it is just a weak excuse to try and save this film. This film desperately needed monsters causing terror by snatching body parts off and mauling people outright in the middle of the night. The slow process of how these monsters kill just added to the already slow storyline. The ending comes and shows the directors lack of vision with just a terrible thought up end sequence. The Burrowers conjures up feelings of dread but mostly it has to do with the writer’s lack of style nothing to do with the horror. I cannot recommend this film as although the genre blend was a nice thought the clear lack of budget and creature design is enough to leave the viewer disinterested. Disinterested or making the viewer want to burrow ones head into the ground instead of having to watch this film.
T Factor + Like small budget horror this could score higher.
T Factor - If you do not like western plots this could score lower.
If you liked this film reel recommendations: Pitch Black, Lost in Space.
2008
Action (Horror)
Rated: R
Running Time: 96 minutes
Starring: Clancy Brown, Sean Patrick Thomas, William Mapother
Directed By: J.T. Petty
Rating: 4 out of 10
Outline
In the late eighteen hundreds on the Dakota plains an unexplained kidnapping has a group of men crossing the plains to recover the stolen settlers. The problem is the plains are not as uninhabited as they think.
Review
Taking place in the remote territories in the Dakotas the Burrowers blends two genres that normally are not mixed. Director and writer J.T. Petty puts his creative foot forward and combines the rugged terrain and story of a western but combines it with the blood and gore of a futuristic science fiction flick. The western portion of the film is great with the remote landscape and old time feel. It leads the viewer to imagine that horror could easily happen in such a remote a location. As the film wears on though the buildup seems too long in the making. An opening scene of terror on a frontier settlement offers little in the way of fright but does set up the movie nicely. It makes the viewer wonder at what sort of monsters are we dealing with. A group ultimately must deal with this unknown menace and head out into the bleak countryside. The stories dialogue and character interaction isn’t the worst and if the film carried on as just a western I could actually see this film working but the addition of the Burrowers was ill conceived and even worse lacking realism and terror. Like most horror films of this ilk the director leaves the viewer to imagine what sort of creature could carry off grown men in the middle of the night. Eerie guttural sounds and glimpses of discolored flesh has the viewer imagining the worst. When the creatures are actually presented in this film the lack of budget and creativity are decidedly poor. I will not go into detail but the creatures kill in a peculiar way to try and increase the frights but it is just a weak excuse to try and save this film. This film desperately needed monsters causing terror by snatching body parts off and mauling people outright in the middle of the night. The slow process of how these monsters kill just added to the already slow storyline. The ending comes and shows the directors lack of vision with just a terrible thought up end sequence. The Burrowers conjures up feelings of dread but mostly it has to do with the writer’s lack of style nothing to do with the horror. I cannot recommend this film as although the genre blend was a nice thought the clear lack of budget and creature design is enough to leave the viewer disinterested. Disinterested or making the viewer want to burrow ones head into the ground instead of having to watch this film.
T Factor + Like small budget horror this could score higher.
T Factor - If you do not like western plots this could score lower.
If you liked this film reel recommendations: Pitch Black, Lost in Space.
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