The Burrowers

• Written and Directed by J. T. Petty
• September 9, 2008 (Toronto International Film Festival) / April 21, 2009 (US)

In the Old West a rescue party in search of a missing family come face to face with deadly tunnel-boring creatures.

On the surface the plot sounds like it was inspired by Tremors 4: The Legend Begins. Old West monsters living underground sound familiar? The Burrowers is not nearly as goofy. And I’m fine with that. There is room for so much in the Western genre. I am happy to see the possibilities explored.

Being the times in which the story is set (and deciding to be a bit cliché) the characters assume the attack was from the local Sioux though the viewer gets regular shots of weird holes in the ground. Then again we already know something unusual is going because we decided to watch this.

That assumption of it being a Native attack by the untrained locals is fine but I am bothered that a local cavalry colonel (Doug Hutchison) is so blindly racist that he buys into it with a passion. No matter how much of a bigot one is you do not get to a position of command without being able to understand the reality of a particular situation.

With a small cast and no sign of civilization The Burrowers works effectively as an isolated group horror movie. Besides the possible previously mentioned inspiration it takes a few things from zombie films with one being the obviously sick guy holding out important info. You could even call this a bit of a Nature’s Revenge movie. The reason these creatures are so dangerous is that there no longer enough buffalo present for them to eat. Now they are looking for other things to snack on.

The characters are hard and men of the West facing off against something they don’t quite understand and aren’t aware how much they don’t understand it at the very beginning. They are not necessarily enemies, but their bond is not tight making a dangerous situation far more dangerous.

I think there is an unnecessary level of mistrust amongst these characters parts. And it largely stems from bigotry or a need to get revenge for that bigotry. These people are being hunted but find it necessary to engage in racism or revenge at the expense of survival. Characters not liking each other is one thing. Getting petty is another.

Clancy Brown is the best known name in here and appears to have been cast as much for his talent as well as giving minimal star power to the production. However he is gone about 30 minutes in leaving no serious badass for the story.

What The Burrowers does right is create and maintain the appropriate atmosphere. Plus it holds off on revealing the big bad until it no longer can avoid doing so. And while it’s not the greatest or most shocking creature design, it at least feels rewarding to actually see it. It is more scary monster than creature that might fit with the local environment.

I can’t say I was ever frightened. Rather I was disturbed. I would also say there are two endings. One which satisfies the narrative and another which screws everything over to the point you’re almost left feeling that it was all pointless. It’s not a no hope ending, but rather one that just screws the characters in a way that feels a touch forced.

he Burrowers is an interesting film. No great surprise but entertaining. No scares to be found but plenty of tension and weirdness.