The Bonesetter

Firstly let me "come clean" admit that I was in the film, as an extra.

That being said the film itself is a good story, well told on a very small budget. This of course somewhat effects the look and feel of the movie but in my opinion does not detract from the story or acting.

Anne-Marie Frigon simply steals the screen whenever she appears. She gets the best "one liners" and makes the most of them. Other actors, including Sherry Thurig, do not have extensive experience in front of a camera but it doesn't stop them from giving good performances.

The attempt at a creepy atmosphere is evident and with some allowance for the lack of computer aided and expensive special effects we have become used to, the movie pulls it off.

Watching it being made I came to appreciate the talents of all involved and look forward to more work from this collection of mostly local talent.

Usually when a movie receives a vote of one it is because someone simply dislikes it and is annoyed it doesn't have a lower rating, and so decides to drag it down as much as they can instead of just giving it a low rating. This is not the case here.

Bonesetter is a perfect example of a 0/10 film. It does nothing right and it doesn't have the chance to because it doesn't really attempt to do anything. There are strands of a bad D&D novel kind of plot which doesn't hold together and a complete lack of any kind of acting throughout. It is clear that nobody involved in this project gave it any kind of serious effort, because even a completely patently untalented persons' hard work would amount to more. A truly awful film.

I was reading back through some of my reviews recently and realized that I tend to do a lot of tearing down. But of course, I also have a penchant for the worst of movies, so I guess that would make sense. It can be hard to say good things about a film that is just really bad.

As for "The Bonesetter," it's a very amateur work. You are going to see a fair bit of work put into it, but ultimately everything is very poor in quality. The camera work in the opening sequence is very rough, and occasionally so shaky you can't even make out the picture. The acting is wooden (more oak than hickory, if yew follow me..), the characters appear to be attempting to play parts that require younger actors at times, the makeup somewhat silly, and the flow of the story is plugged full of holes.

And as always with amateur horror, garage band grind for the music. This time with at least one player who hasn't quite finished getting his guitar tuned up. To be fair, while the music did have a certain "casio" sound to it, some of the themes were fairly nice. I enjoyed some of it this time.

I think the villain was a little over planned. His attire may have fit the decade, but he still just seemed a little to circus-ee to me. I think that they would have done better by keeping him off camera and not allowing him to speak. Oftentimes what the audience doesn't get to see is more interesting than what they do get to see.

I don't want to say this movie is bad, merely poorly classified. "The Bonesetter" is not a good horror film (Its hard to make anything good when you appear to have shot entirely on a camcorder) but if you accept it as part of the genre I like to call "Borchardts"* it becomes not only a perfect example of the form, but one of the best I have seen.

A Borchardt is a Low budget film, usually horror, that has been produced, written, directed, and (this is critical) stars the same person. This is made painfully obvious through out the film. The star is decent at acting and is often convincing; but the rest of the cast (pulled from friends 9 times out of 10) is well, cardboard. Video production and effects are crude at best, and the importance, sex appeal, and intelligence of the lead are extremely overstressed.

The Bonesetter is a great example of a Borchardt, but the full on elongated french kiss between Kelly and the female lead puts it over the top. Also note the film makes reference to Kelly being involved in a relationship with a "party girl" resulting in a child, and he is fawned over by his co-worker in the film. Extremely overstressed.

But, before we damn the film, please remember that the important thing is that despite funding and equipment and all the other tough things it takes to make a movie, Kelly at least got it done, and out there. Granted, out there in a four volume collection selling for $6, but how many of your movies are on the shelf at Best Buy?

*Named after the film "American Movie"

I worked on this movie and it was a real pleasure. The movie turned out to be very atmospheric and moody. it favors acting and story over blood and guts. The mood is dark but there is a good balance of humour in the movie as well. Brett Kelly is a good actor and a good storyteller. Hopefully the indie horror audience who may be be used to sub par stories will appreciate this gem. Despite what has previously been written, the lighting in this movie is actually quite good as is the cinematography. The DVD also features many excellent features such as commentary from the director and actress Anne-Marie Frigon (who shines in every scene she is in) as well as bloopers, outtakes, auditions, camera tests and more. Its really very cool. good job to everyone involved in this movie.

Well done