Nerds That Geek Movie Review: ‘Bone Tomahawk’

Written by Scott Edwards 

Living in a small town, you know everybody, and everybody knows you as well. Most of the time you are pretty tight with your neighbors since they are the only ones around. Knowing what all is happening at all times and being able to pinpoint who will be getting in trouble when they get home, it is something that many people would like to do in their later years. With no secrets, no hate and no ill will hearts, it would be heaven on earth for so many people, but what if all of these things actually did come to town. 

Getting away with murder is something that Buddy and Purvis have been getting used to, but once again while slitting a sleeping man’s neck, Purvis comes up short. Not cutting all of the veins and arteries, the sleeping man wakes up forcing Buddy to shoot him. The gunshot alarms a group of riders to the camp and the two men must escape before being found out. Moving through the canyons, the two find themselves in the middle of an Indian burial ground and have to move through it to safety. But when they start to hear strange things in the bushes, Buddy is attacked by an unseen hunter and killed on the spot while Purvis is able to make it back to the nearest town.

The town of Bright Hope does not have much going on and the empty bar is the true sign of how the economy is going there. When an out of sorts Purvis shows up in the bar, nobody knows what his story is, but old man Chicory knows that he has seen the man before burying something in the plains. Alerting Sheriff Hunt about what he saw, the Sheriff has no alternative than to go and check out the situation. As Hunt can tell that the stranger to his town is lying to him with every answer, the Sheriff tries to bring Purvis to the jail, but when he tries to escape, Purvis gets shot in the leg. Being taken to jail, the Sheriff tries to get the town Doctor to come and take a look, but he is deep into his bottle of spirits, so the town nurse comes in his place. Leaving her husband for the time being, Samantha is ready to get the stranger's leg fixed, but there is someone in the shadows with an alternative motive.

Waking up to hear that his deputy, prisoner and Samantha have all been kidnapped, Sheriff Hunt finds out that they were taken by a band of Indians called Troglodytes who make their homes in the canyon walls. With only a location to look for, Sheriff Hunt, Chicory, Samantha’s husband Arthur, and the town smart man Brooder mount up and go in search of the missing folks. Being told that the tribe is a band of cannibals does not help the cause, but keeps them pushing as hard as they can, but being constantly slowed down by Arthur’s broken leg, they may have to look for an alternative. Not wanting to give up on his wife and get her help as soon as possible, Arthur allows the group to move on without him and when he is able to catch up, he is able to see what is happening around them with better perspective. It is a race against time and not knowing who or what they are really looking for, the group is able to locate the captors, but they are not as prepared as they should be when it comes to knocking them off.

I have been waiting to see this movie ever since I saw the actors that were attached to the project. I must admit that it did not disappoint in my eyes since I really did not know what was going to happen until it was on the screen in front of me. I really liked seeing the relationship between Samantha and Arthur, just to know how far he would go for her, especially if she was in trouble. But I must admit that Chicory stole the show with his little quips and usefulness to the group, I really liked the ‘old man’. It’s just your gold old western story that has a bite of cannibals in it to juice up the movie a little bit. It’s not too bad with the blood if that is not your thing, but you get to see more than a few characters meet their maker and very quickly. Happy Viewing.

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