BONE TOMAHAWK (2015)

Set in the 1890's American West, BONE TOMAHAWK is a well made low-budget western about a quiet frontier town that wakes up one morning to find two of their citizens and one stranger missing and a stable boy gutted.  What the hell happened?  The last thing anybody knows is the local doctor was treating an injured prisoner while under the watch of a deputy.  Now they're all gone and the dude tending the horses was found with his innards pulled out.

After a little investigation, Sheriff Kurt Russell discovers that (I guess, unknown to him until just now) only a few days ride away there is a tribe of cannibalistic cave dwellers!  Sounds like something that a local sheriff would need to know about, but whatever.  Finally Sheriff Russell, another deputy and two townsfolk (including the female doctors husband) head out on horseback to rescue the kidnapping victims.  Things don't go quite as planned...not that they really had much of a plan at all.

Slow pace that actually fits the story, amazing cast, nice camerawork, cannibal indians that flip around like Cirque du Soleil performers, one gruesome kill scene, an injured guy with a broken leg suddenly appearing in a cave so high up a cliff face that everybody else has to be pulled up on a rope, unsatisfactory ending that hints at a sequel, Richard Jenkins' using some kind of annoying "old man" voice that got old real quick, beautiful scenery, Zahn McClarnon with way too small of a role.

Overall, BONE TOMAHAWK is a good film with a promising story that outstretched its budget (I would have dropped the broken leg bit and changed it so it was Sheriff Kurt's first week on the job after being brought in from out of state).  Worth a watch for fans of gritty westerns, but nothing to pull yer pud over.

THE CONJURING (2013)

Written by the twins from RAD (yes, including the one that grabbed his own ass while dancing), THE CONJURING tells the story of a family - husband, wife, five daughters - who move into a old house out in the country...a haunted house.  The normal stuff happens at first (creaking doors, cold chills, rancid meat smells, pictures falling off the walls, etc.), but when the hauntings become more violent, the parents bring in a husband and wife team of paranormal investigators.  The standard haunted house exorcism movie stuff follows.

Despite the the fact that the story is totally 100% unoriginal, I actually enjoyed THE CONJURING mainly thanks to the leadership of director James Wan who, as you can see in the extras, really turns this average story into a thoroughly entertaining film.  Good pace, mature scares (none of that annoying 4,000 decibel jump scene bullshit), excellent production values, impressive cast (I really enjoyed Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson), strong camerawork and some seriously creepy situations.

THE CONJURING is a good film, but in my personal opinion I really wish the tension would have just kept building and building until it finally exploded into a grand finale of pure unrelenting blasphemy, gore and violence beating the audiences brains to death.  But that's just me.  As it is, it's still a fun, light-weight haunted house movie.  I'm looking forward to seeing what else this series brings.

Part 2 - The Conjuring 2 (2016)
Part 3 - The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021)
Annabelle spin-off 1 - Annabelle (2014)
Annabelle spin-off 2 - Annabelle: Creation (2017)
Annabelle spin-off 3 - Annabelle Comes Home (2019)
The Nun spin-off (2018)
The Nun II (2023)