Ruptured Reasoning: The Burrowers (2008)

by Chris Marshall:

Director: J.T. Petty

Cast: Clancy Brown, David Busse

Netflix Synopsis: When the men on a pioneer homestead are brutally murdered and the women and children go missing, a posse sets out to find them, assuming they've been abducted by Indians. But they soon discover that the truth is much more horrific.

Chris: I was mostly interested in The Burrowers because it fell into a genre I had never seen before: horror western. I guess I just hadn’t ever thought about it before, but I realized I couldn’t really think of any other examples of the genre. I’m sure it exists—Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series could sort of be considered horror western, I suppose—but I had never seen such a movie.

As it turned out, the film had plenty to offer outside the peculiarity of its subject matter. I was pleasantly surprised by how well it turned out. Sure, there were some flaws, but for a movie that never saw a theatrical release, it was quite well made.

The film starts in a town somewhere around the Dakota Territory where things have gone terribly wrong. It seems like everyone has been killed, but that’s not quite the case. Several are found dead around the town, but a few are missing as well. Our main characters set off to rescue them, assuming they had been kidnapped by Indians.

It quickly becomes apparent to us, if not to the protagonists, that this was no human attack. Although the “burrowers” are not seen until pretty late in the movie, it is clear that they are monstrous beings. Our heroes find strange holes at first, until they stumble across a body, alive but unconscious, buried in a field.

The characters in the film aren’t particularly quick on the uptake, though I suppose it would be hard to wrap my mind around the fact that horrible monsters were killing everybody. Eventually they accept the truth, and it leads to a face-off with the burrowers.

All in all, it was good, a well-acted film that stayed true to both its major genres. It did have its flaws, of course. It seemed like the filmmakers couldn’t make up their minds who our main character was. At first, it seemed like it was going to be the teenage boy who was off on his first adventure. Then it was his soon-to-be stepfather, who had taken the boy under his wings. Then it was two other guys, and I started to wonder who the movie was really about.

This isn’t really that big of a complaint, and it did have the effect of keeping me guessing about what would happen next. It was obvious early in the movie that nobody was safe. Still, I thought it was a strange choice. Why do we spend so much time with certain characters if they turn out to be more or less irrelevant?

Pictured: Mitt Romney's campaign slogan

But that’s just a question of perspective. With one exception, I thought the characters were realistic and well developed. Nobody behaved extremely irrationally, a common characteristic of people in horror movies. Things didn’t always turn out well, but it wasn’t because they were constantly making terrible decisions. The aforementioned exception refers to the character of Parcher, who seemed to turn on a dime from a solid, upstanding guy to a sniveling, possibly treacherous, coward. That transformation came from nowhere, and I don’t think it helped out the movie to go that route.

There are probably plenty of issues that could be analyzed regarding the relationship between the “white men” and the Indians, but the movie didn’t make that big of a deal about it, so neither will I. The characters mostly condemned the torture of the captured Sioux, at least. That shouldn’t be a sentiment that needs to be applauded, but after watching The Final, I don’t take it for granted anymore.

Overall, this was quite enjoyable, and I’d recommend it to most people. There were some violent scenes, but they weren’t overly gory or grotesque. It maintains a very serious and somber tone throughout, and while some of the kills are sort of brutal, the film is not obsessed with every detail of the death.

Justin: I really loved this movie. It was intelligent, well written, and had creative characters and plot.

As Chris said, the western horror genre mash-up is a rarity. The best example for me would be one of my favorite films of all time: High Plains Drifter. This doesn't quite reach that level, but come on, no one tops Clint Eastwood.

The first thing that needs to be said is the immense debt this film owes to The Searchers. The plots are nearly identical and Clancy Brown is the obvious John Wayne stand-in. A scene about removing the eyes from a corpse so that they will have to wander the afterlife blind is taken almost verbatim from The Searchers. Also both films concern the idea of western mythology in terms of pure evil. The Burrowers has monsters, The Searchers has racism. It's really a clever idea and the filmmakers deserve credit for it.

What I loved most about this film is its condemnation of the forming of America. Chris mentioned it, but I really think it's the heart of the film. Ever since Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch, the western has been primarily concerned with how America was formed. The Burrowers is no different. It takes a nightmarish approach to the colonial expansion that formed America.

In the beginning the monsters never fed on people, they fed on buffalo. As we know, the hunting practice of the settlers exterminated the buffalo. With nothing to feed on the burrowers moved on to humans. Luckily the Indians know how to kill them. Except the settlers have moved on to exterminating the Indians. At the end it becomes apparent that this horror will remain unchecked, as a punishment to the white man's racism and excess. Like the greatest horror movies the monsters are a metaphor for the evil that lies within.

Aww, how precious.

Clancy Brown, one of my favorite character actors, has a pretty substantial role here. Anytime I get to see him in a film it's a treat. Like I mentioned earlier, he gets to play the John Wayne role. He's perfectly suited to it. He has the physical presence to pull off that level of immediate respect and intimidation, and like always the performance itself stands out for its quality. If there are any other Clancy Brown fans out there this is one not to be missed.

Across the board the performances are really solid. I agree with Chris that the character of Parcher gets handled poorly. It's too bad since the character and the actor were doing such a great job.

I don’t mind the film changing focus from character to character. In an ensemble movie like this it's optimal to give them all their moments. Once they start dying off it makes the film feel that much more dangerous.

One of my biggest complaints is cinematography. Like I said this film is heavily influenced by The Searchers in terms of its story. Too bad that didn't cross over to the visual aesthetic of the film. The western genre should be a dream for any director or cinematographer. It's a genre that gives you an excuse to be as artsy as you want. There are some nice moments that show some thought went into how portions of the film would be shot. My only guess is that the budget was too small and the time too short to get a level of perfection to the shot layouts.

My only other complaint is the pacing that leads to the end of the movie. Don't get me wrong, I'm really a big fan of this ending. It just came much too fast. A little time building to the final scene would have helped the film a lot. A moment where we get a glimmer of hope before the world comes crashing down again would have made the ending have so much more impact. It's just a missed opportunity to top the film off in a big way.