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Stephen King may not generally be the person that people turn to recommendations for Western films, but horror legend recently went to Twitter / X to recommend a neglected western with the Kurt Russell still neglected. King wrote some stories that are adjacent Western, in particular his series “The Dark Tower”, but generally his work is in a very different genre. The film he recommended, however, is completely logical, because it is probably the most horrible western ever made.
The recommended Western King was “Bone Tomahawk”, the film by S. Craig Zahler in 2015 which sets out Patrick Wilson as a Arthur O’Dwyer, whose wife Samantha (Lili Simmons) was kidnapped by terrifying “troglodytes”, a group of cannibal caves. Russell embodies the Sheriff Franklin Hunt, which is attracted to O’Dwyer with a group of ragtag from city cities, notably the bloodthirsty legislator John Brooder (Matthew Fox) and the city of the city of the city, the assistant chicory (Richard Jenkins). They leave to find Samantha and get more than what they have negotiated, transforming the West tense into a full -fledged horror film when the final credits roll. It is one of the best westerns of the last decade, in easily competition with controversial death scenes from horror classics, but even if it features Kurt Russell, it is not your father’s kind of West.
Osse Tomahawk is a hell of a brutal west
What does Stephen King think of “Bone Tomahawk?” In his article, King names the film and then reveals his praise in a mini-revision:
“I expected anything but a time passer on a rainy Wednesday morning, and I obtained a western epic on a low budget. The dialogue alone is worth watching. Beware of the last act, when a man is literally torn apart.”
“Bone Tomahawk” is an intense and elegant conduct with a dialogue that even rivals the “tombstone” with Russell, and the actor praised the film for his precise dialogue. “Tombstone” and “Bone Tomahawk” have big opera moments, memorable characters and a magnificent cinematography, but “Tombstone” certainly does not have a man literally torn. There is nothing that can fully prepare you for this scene, even if you know that it happens, because Zahler has built the tension at a point as atrocious as it explodes with violence, it is almost painful to look at. The rescue team goes from Samantha’s research and perhaps revenge simply tries to survive and escape the brutality of the cannibals. It is definitely the kind of film that one could imagine the writing of king, with complex characters and weary of the world that get into unimaginable horrors.
An end of the end for a recommendation Stephen King
Seriously, the highlight of “Bone Tomahawk” is incredibly horrible. Human beings are reduced to pieces of meat, and everything goes in front of people who are potentially dinner. The lifestyle ended up needing to save itself, and one of the main characters ends up with a captive itself, locked in a cage while looking at the cannibals tearing a man in the middle. It is unforgettable, and only one part of a very great horror-Western.
“Bone Tomahawk” is one of the many neglected and underestimated westerns that deserve more love. Other films, such as the Australian westerns “The Proposition” and “The Nightingale”, have shown that westerns can be as brutal as horror films, while remaining faithful to what makes the genre great. They may not be old-fashioned traditional westerns, but they are still phenomenal.
