Plot
In the Wild West, a posse sets off to
find and rescue a family of settlers who were apparently kidnapped by
hostile Indians. But as men begin to vanish in the night and strange holes
begin appearing around them in the ground, the posse soon realise that their
prey is something far more terrifying than Indians.
Review
I've seen a string of horror films
recently which have been set in the Wild West and I must say that it is a
really interesting time period to be setting them in. Gone are the clichés
of modern day horror films where characters are all stereotyped teenagers;
where mobile phones don't work; where characters spout off their film
knowledge; where they have all of the wonders of 21st century life to help
them get through their struggles. Take all of that away, strip the film down
to it's basic elements and play up an odd western cliché or two and you've
got the ground work for original horror films where creativity is the key
because you can't rely technology to save you. The Burrowers comes
hot on the heels of Undead or Alive and Copperhead, two other
Wild West horror films in which the elements are the same as countless other
modern era horror films, only with the novelty value of setting it somewhere
remote, desolate and as wild and savage as the monsters you're fighting.
That's not to say The Burrowers is a good film. Far from it - the
best I can say is that it had potential but it just didn't live up to it one
bit. It's very slow-paced but I got the feeling that was deliberate on the
part of the director. It's a good 45 minutes before anything really exciting
happens and the odd Burrower attack is peppered through the middle of the
film which promises a great finale but fails to deliver. I think the
director was going for a slightly more dramatic affair with lots of paranoia
and eerie goings on but it just doesn't work as well as it should.
The Western setting is nailed
down a tee though with some spot-on cinematography. The characters are all
well-rounded and, dare I say it, likeable. You don't want any of them to get
harmed because they all get a chance to develop. It's always great to see a
stalwart like Clancy Brown in something like this too! The film definitely
plays to it's strengths which is the mood and atmosphere. As I've already
touched upon in my opening, the Wild West was a remote, savage place so when
the posse end up in the middle of nowhere, you know that is just where they
are - no small towns hiding around the mountains, no police station nearby
or no cabin to shelter in. This feeling of isolation is played up in the
film a lot as the characters know they're on their own and need to stick
together. However twists and turns along the way mean that is not possible.
Some of the night scenes where the Burrowers are scurrying around in the
grass around the camp are pretty tense affairs. The only light is coming
from the fire so it's impossible to see too far. You just hear them brushing
past the grass.
The Burrowers themselves don't appear a lot.
It's good because they look rather rubbish when they do appear in their CGI
form. The actual latex suits used in some scenes look far more convincing,
especially in a dimly lit environment. But they work better as unseen
assailants anyway, crawling out from their ground holes to poison and
paralyse victims before burying them in the ground alive and coming back to
eat them later on when they've turned all squishy inside! A lot of real life
animals and insects use this method to eat their prey but it just sounds a
lot more harsh when it's human beings involved. There aren't too many bloody
scenes of people getting their insides sucked out but there is one great
scene where you see one unlucky victim get poisoned, paralysed, buried alive
and then feasted upon later in the film. They are definitely a unique
creation and this film needed more Burrower action! Again though I think any
more of the monster action would have overdone it.
Verdict
The
Burrowers is a decent
monster flick which sacrifices cheap scares and gore for a slow-burner pace
and lots of excellent atmosphere and tension. Whether you're in the mood for
something more sophisticated than your usual teen horror will depend on your
enjoyment. Everyone who keeps up-to-date with horror films should at least
check it out. You won't be overly disappointed.
