When Storytelling trumps Budget: The western-horror BONE TOMAHAWK (2015, wri/dir by S. Craig Zahler, USA, 132mns)

How does one puzzle out the value of a $1.8M western-horror film that BOTH shows the limitations of its budget and transcends them with powerful storytelling? But then again, the low budget may be the foundation of the entire effect.

The movie works, in part, because its production tensions translate well to the narrative tensions.

No budget for horses. . .well have some antagonists steal the horses. No budget for special effects? Well. . .muster what budget there is for a few money shots that will turn the audience's stomach. No budget for complicated camera moves ? Well. . .keep the shots workmanlike but effective. Lean into the story, acting, and sound design to carry the load like a group of pack mules who can still cross the desert.

You get the idea. These filmmakers found workarounds.

BONE TOMAHAWK is a movie this writer had been hearing about for years (it was made in 2015) but only just got around to seeing.

It is well worth the watch for those who can tolerate extreme violence and complexity of tone.

The story feels like the bastard child of western novelist Louis L'Amour and moviemaker Peter Jackson, if Jackson had decided to make a horror-western early in his career. But maybe it also has a dash of 1940's horror producer Val Lewton (CAT PEOPLE, I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE) in that the horror is held in reserve for key moments late in the game.

The story is sturdy and galvanizing. Two murderous thieves (played with wonderful disregard by Sid Haig and David Arquette) stumble upon a Native American graveyard where one of the thieves promptly gets disembowled.

Cut to the other Thief stumbling into the quiet town of Bright Hope. A bumbling but well meaning Deputy Chicory (Richard Jenkins) reports the Thief to the solid, seasoned intelligent sheriff Hunt (Kurt Russell). They shoot and arrest the Vagabond criminal. Then promptly call the town's second doctor Mrs. O Dwyer (Lilli Simmons), the wife of the town's ambitious cowboy foreman, O Dwyer (Patrick Wilson) who is currently laid up with a leg injury, to tend to the thief's bullet wounds.

They ask the other deputy Nick to escort her home when she's done.

The next morning, Mrs. O Dwyer, Nick, and the Thief have all gone missing.

Sheriff Hunt, O Dwyer, Chicory, and a talented but amoral dandy named Brooder (Matthew Fox), form a search party.

But they are warned by the local Native American liason that the kidnappers are "Troglodytes" who eat people, can not be reasoned with, and cannot be defeated. They are only going to their deaths.

This is the set-up. Writer/director S. Craig Zahler then takes us on a rambling, but always captivating journey that's more character study than action movie until the third act.

And oh boy what a third act. You may have heard about it. A character gets scalped, cut in half, and eaten.

It's fascinating to reverse engineer how such a low budget movie gets such a stellar cast and comes out so well. The script, dialogue, characters, performances, and storytelling are all superb.

Hell, this $1.8M movie got Kurt Russell! And he's great. (As always).

And that carries the movie.

The tremendous performances are borne out of incredible character writing and scriptwork.

One understands immediately why Kurt Russell, Richard Jenkins, Patrick Wilson, Matthew Goode all signed on to the movie. Their parts are dynamite.

What's a bit more befuddling (in a good way) is how even smaller parts get filled by great character actors like Sid Haig, David Arquette, Fred Melamed, James Tolkan.

Even BLADE RUNNER's Sean Young turns up in one scene as the Mayor's wife.

So yet again it is proved that a great script will attract talent.

All the Actors seem to know they've got a great yarn here and they all tear into it performatively the way the Troglodytes tear into certain characters literally. . .

And the Troglodytes...

The movie is self-aware of the issues here and tries to head them off at the pass with an early scene where a Native American known as The Professor (Zahn McClarnon) makes the incisive remark that these cannibals are NOT like other Native Americans but white settlers like the Sheriff, Deputy, Cowboy, etc would not know the difference.

In fact, the white characters' innate racism is an intelligent and intentional part of the tension of the movie. Some characters like Sheriff Hunt and Deputy Chicory demonstrate a fairness that characters like Brooder and the Thieves do not.

But all that self awareness still doesn't completely overcome the uneasy feeling that at some very fundamental level the movie is still trafficking in the "lizard brain" coding of white people "civilized", indigenous people "savages".

But. . .and this is the key point, the movie does not feel racist. It is instead clearly meant to be read as a horror-Western. The Troglodytes might even verge into metaphorical territory as a kind of manifestation of the earth's rage at its own rape at the hands of supposedly "civilized" settlers.

Possibly the movie's greatest strength, which may explain why horror maestro Stephen King recently came out as a huge fan, is its constant ability to scramble expectations.

Who lives and who doesn't is completely unpredictable. The movie has that strength that only a rare group of movies do: it continually surprises while at the same time delivering on a kind of primal inevitability of plotting, story, conflict, tension.

What does come across as a revelation in this movie is how important and central good storytelling, script writing, character building is to a successful movie.

All the budget and fancy camera shots in the world can't hide a weak story. And all the budget limitations in the world can't hold a strong story down if that strong story is serviced by a committed team and amazing performances.

Both of which are here in overabundance.

Brace yourself. Maybe don't eat anything just before watching this movie. Then watch it and be blown away that movies like this are still finding a way to attract talent, get made, and find audiences.

Craig Hammill is the founder.programmer of Secret Movie Club.