The Burrowers (Review)

Either a very big skull or very little people.

Strange movie. It’s nearly Tremors, nearly Ravenous, nearly The Descent and nearly interesting.

But three ‘nearly’s’ ain’t getting it done I’m afraid.

Set in 1879 – 100 years before Billy Corgan found a year worth singing about – The Burrowers refer to… things, that beset a group of soldiers, civilians and cowboys searching for members of a missing presumed taken by Indians in a violent raid.

The civvies have a more direct interest in finding those missing, but it seems the soldiers are driven by more sketchy motivations. It is after they indulge in some basic prolonged torture that the civvies decide to break and head off alone deep into Indian territory.

It is here that things finally get to the point – and by that I mean the plot starts dealing with the events and ‘things’ referred to on the DVD cover. Only took half the film to get there.

As the searchers forge ever onward they begin noticing shallow but obvious holes in the terrain, unnatural looking holes, near one of these a young girl is found buried in the dirt – literally buried – only her scalp barely shows on the ground surface. Stranger still the girl is alive, though catatonic, and she is immediately sent back to the town with a young boy as her chauffeur.

The remaining crew move forward, by this stage as confused as we are. Until they finally meet those responsible for the holes, after this everything quickly falls into place, meaning the film can be wrapped up similarly swiftly.

The design of the ‘burrowers’ is only so-so, they don’t really look that effective which explains also why they are not shown onscreen mostly as glimpses and in the fringes. In fact the director showed more close ups of various insects in the first hour than the titular creatures.

I kinda liked the brief National Geographic explanation behind the burrowers living habits (think spiders) and I kinda liked the pacing near the end. But really this is like a Dean Koontz book, come up with an interchangable monster/creature/virus/‘insert scary thing X’, spend two thirds of the book lazily setting the scene, then have the final third about dealing with ‘X’.

It’s all quite straightforward and not quite worthwhile.

Final Rating – 6 / 10. A brave, sincere and futile attempt at creating an original horror movie that doesn’t work because even in small borrowings the original sources are obvious (and better).

About OGR

While I try to throw a joke or two into proceedings when I can all of the opinions presented in my reviews are genuine. I don't expect that all will agree with my thoughts at all times nor would it be any fun if you did, so don't be shy in telling me where you think I went wrong... and hopefully if you think I got it right for once. Don't be shy, half the fun is in the conversation after the movie.
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