Coroner’s Report: The Burrowers

Posted by Robert Fure (robert@filmschoolrejects.com) on May 28, 2009

Ever since I’ve hit my movie watching stride, I’ve been a genre guy, prone to different kicks.  Science fiction, comedies, spy flicks and the like.  The two constants have always been horror and westerns, so when The Burrowers, a horror western, came along, I was on that like Curly Bill on opium.  That is to say, I smoked it up and then accidentally shot a Sheriff.  But I did not shoot the deputy.  Let’s talk horror already.

The Burrowers is a western film that follows a group of men set out to rescue a family they believe to have been taken by Indians.  Along the way they team up and separate from a small army unit, also on the trail with a blood lust for native scalps.  Men slowly start to disappear and soon the disparate group is being stalked and attacked by small, underground burrowers that paralyze their victims and bury them to let them rot before eating the gooey insides.  Gross.

Kills

This flick doesn’t want for dead bodies, as at least 11 people fall victim to either bullets or creepy little things.  More than a few of these happen mostly off screen though.

Ills

There is plenty of blood, some dead bodies, a gunshot to the throat, some eyes shot out, some dead horses, a face smashed in, a triggered bear trap, a ripped off limb and some people get eaten alive.  Most of the kills are rather tame, but towards the end there are some good gore moments.

Lust

We get nothing here.  For shame.

Learning

Never trust your enemies as they’ll pump your body full of poison.  The enemy of my enemy is sometimes still my enemy.

Review

The Burrowers is a beautifully shot film that captures the lovely landscapes representing the American Southwest.  The night sequences are well shot and well lit, helping to provide a scary atmosphere.  Much like horror classic Halloween, if you pay close attention to the background, you’ll often see glimpses of the killers in scenes where they don’t even show up in a threatening manner.  The vague bobbing of the shapes cast by the creatures legs off in the night are some of the best scenes in the film as they provide a tense and atmospheric night sequence.

The creature design is also pretty cool.  They have the faces of ogres but legs like giant crickets.  They’re suitably gross and their method of killing is a pretty bad way to go.  But any animal that burrows through the ground and tries to consume humans is instantly compared to Tremors and Tremors wins every time.  The monsters are pretty scary in the night sequences, mostly because they often are just barely visible out in the distance.

If the film sounds good so far, it’s because that the film is mostly good.  It’s pretty good right up until the ending and a bad end can make the whole movie taste sour.  I’ll spoil a thing or two now, so either quickly jump ship or just read on – it’s probably better to be spoiled now than disappointed later.  In the end, the monsters are killed by sunlight.  Are you kidding me?  What kind of bullshit is that?  That is so old and tired.  It feels like a rip-off and a cop out, especially when they were hunting a way to kill the monsters.  Could have easily just made up some Native American mumbo-jumbo which would have been better than the power of the sun.  The film also at the end opts for a somewhat nihilistic ending in that it tries to tell you that no matter what you do, it doesn’t matter.  Life sucks.  There is no point to this film (other than you suck and your life sucks so sit down and die), there is no lesson learned and no goal achieved.  It’s a bit of a downer.  The entire time you’re expecting the dramatic rescue but instead you get a dose of bleak reality.  Handled a bit differently, being faced with the idea of complete and utter hopelessness could have really rocked this film out.  But it comes off as almost a forced choice and you feel slighted that you get no closure on the issue.  Plus, the fact that sunlight is what killed the monsters, you’re already in an unforgiving mood.

At the end of the day, The Burrowers isn’t a bad film and is a bit better than average.  Fans of horror and westerns should find enough here to enjoy to make it worth a rental.  Oh, and I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that the CGI blood that comes out of the horses when shot is completely abysmal.

Read more articles by Robert Fure