After a simply delightful dinner with friends, and some much needed one-on-one girl time with a bestie, I came home to a cozy couch and a Husband surprisingly interested in watching a horror movie.
Seeing as we both like Westerns, I thought Bone Tomahawk, a film revolving around cannibals and 'good-guys' would be a wise decision for the evening's movie of choice.
About 20 minutes in I said aloud, "What in the world is this?" Mike burst out laughing - thankful we were on the same page about the film.
No, either of us were having a good time with this movie. Not at all. Although, we started to have a good time when we both realized how much neither of us were enjoying it!
Now, I get slow burning horror movies - in fact I rather enjoy them - but this was not what I call a slow burner. I'd call it more of the pilot light when out, early, kind of movie.
We sat agape at the lack of anything remotely interesting happening, aside from the very unusual acting, oddly disjointed dialog, and there was something about the cinematography that really bugged me ...
"Flat," Mike said suddenly, "The shots are flat." Indeed they were! Once he said that I couldn't Un-See how flat/uninspiring/disconnected/boring the scenes were filmed.
- Then we couldn't stop noticing the (unintended???) racism.
- Then I said, "...we're only 40 minutes in - can we Fast Forward now?" (He said No, we have to preserver).
- Then I said, "This movie has a 7.1 out of 10 rating on IMDB..." We simply couldn't believe, but keep going because maybe there's something we're missing.
- Then I feel asleep for a little while but ultimately missed nothing.
The movie appeared to have had a lot money invested but none of that jumped out to us. We also couldn't believe Kurt Russell was involved in this - in all we just couldn't believe what was happening on our screen was actually happening.
This movie struck us both as flat, boring, racist, odd, cheep, and not a fun movie watching experience at all. Then why in the world does it have a 7.1 rating on IMDB, a 90% Critic rating and a 72% Audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes?
Is there something wrong with us???
You decide, dear readers. I'd be interested to know what you think.
I rented this movie from my local video store (Rain City Video). Use the links under Find It. Watch It. on Horror Habit's sidebar to see where else you can find this unfun feature.
I'm a bit late to the party, but I wanted to throw my two cents in.
ReplyDeleteI thought this movie was great! Most of your complaints were things I liked about it. The uninspired shots set the tone of the bleakness, the racism was in-your-face but accurate for the times, and the slow pace added to the low boil of events. Perhaps some of my enjoyment can be attributed to the sheer CRAP I've been watching. The change of pace in this movie was very welcome.
I do have a problem with the gore in it. I'm not against gore, but it seemed out of place here. I could tell they were going for that "brutal, no-holds-barred realism", but there is a fine line between "real" and "gratuitous", and I think it crossed it.
Thanks for your insight, Kev! I should probably give it another try :)
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