The Bone Snatcher

This horror movie starts out promisingly enough and there is a moment where I thought to myself "this is going to be really good". However, it gets rather boring rather quick at the end. The acting is fairly good, as is the location and the story starts out rather well too. The problem, not enough kills on screen and an ending where you have the monster basically turning tail and running. I wanted to see more, especially after a very good sleeping bag scene where I thought the movie was picking up and going to be a winner. Unfortunately after that the movie showed the monster very little and the back of the DVD lied as it told me that the desert beneath the people literally came alive and was capable of devouring their flesh...now that would have been some movie, a nearly inescapable situation. Granted that would have made viewers uncomfortable and it might of ramped up the tension, but that is what horror movies are supposed to do! Instead we have very few shots of the creature or creatures as it were and when we do see it, it is mainly on the defensive. Still it wasn't all bad, it just needed more horror less hunting and more chomping.

In the heart of the Namib desert, a group of miners and scientists discover a bizarre life form living beneath the sand—a life form that needs human bones to stay alive. "The Bone Snatcher" is an African horror film that debuted on the sci-fi channel as one of their "original movies", despite having quite a decent budget ($6,000,000) and being extremely well-made, two things you rarely see from a sci-fi channel flick. The film is visually stunning. The camera work and cinematography are truly on par, or even BETTER than most films Hollywood produces. The actors are all unknowns but give perfectly fine performances, especially Warrick Grier. The monster is both conceptually and visually very, very cool. The creature effects are extremely good in this flick, far better than what you see in most made-for-TV horror films. I loved the score too; the music is fantastic! Lots of African drums and bongos mixed with a slightly electronic track for good effect. I wish there was a CD…

"The Bone Snatcher" is a finely-crafted, beautifully shot, well-acted monster movie. It's not scary as some have said but it's certainly leaps and bounds better than most direct-to-video horror movies, and trust me, I've seen a LOT of those in my time… Definitely worth checking out.

7.5/10.

Mining company employees who venture into the Namib desert to find some lost colleagues find a monster instead in this South African horror film directed by Jason Wulfsohn. While certainly not a classic by any means, I think this film stands heads and shoulders above most of the straight-to-video horror dreck I have recently seen. Technically, the film-making is certainly competent in all categories, even if some of the conflicts between the characters seems forced. Still, the film benefits most from its location: the Namib Desert, whose dry vastness adds a sense of isolation and peril to the proceedings. The bone-snatching monster is also visually interesting. This film is well worth a look. I look forward to seeing Mr. Wulfsohn's next film.

The Bone Snatcher is about a group miners who go on a search for a missing crew of miners in the Namib Desert. When the find them, they are nothing more than bones stripped clean and they could not have been dead for more than six hours. The story keeps you interested as to what exactly caused this. The characters are well enough, and the acting is pretty good.

About an hour and ten minutes in when you find out what is causing the bones to be stripped clean, you sigh "oh, that is really stupid." The movie is ruined by bad writing and a non-exciting ending. Up until that point, the movie was pretty good, and it is a shame that it took such a bad turn. So I cannot recommend this movie. I gave it a 4/10.

There is an interesting idea here. It is a sort of weird mix of John Carpenter's The Thing, H.P. Lovecraft with sand thrown in. Lots of sand. For anyone who has seen The Thing and read Lovecraft sand surely doesn't spoil things. It actually makes for an interesting setting that is not too often used in horror. In fact, it is not really used much in any type of movie.

Perhaps it's the fact that such a featureless landscape is hard to imagine as anything other than dull and certainly not frightening. The typical desert doesn't have many, if any at all, caves or any other crevices and burrows where something awful can hide. So just where does a demon, that can strip someone's skin clean off their bones hide? Well, you'll just have to watch to find the answer, but unfortunately it is that answer that'll provide you with a let down. Like I said, the idea is good, but the manner in which it is shown commits one of the cardinal sins of the horror genre and that's showing too much too quickly. Virtually every horror movie that does so automatically just slips a few notches. It doesn't become frightening. Startling at best, but that's just not enough. Also, as another letdown is the lack of atmosphere. The cinematography hardly does justice to the setting and it relies too much on the mediocre special effects to cause chills. Predictably, those chills aren't nearly as chilling as they could have been. Also, the film seems to strive a little too far in giving a scientific explanation for the horror. That doesn't affect the film as bad as the other things, but it does take away a good deal of the mystery.

The manner in which is presented that is real down, but the initial idea remains a very good one. Meaning horror fans will want to tune in, if just for that. --- 5/10

Rated R for horror images and profanity. Ages 13+