Bone EaterFilmed in an around the Vasquez Rocks National Park, the iconic landscape isn’t the only reason for Sci-Fi fans to check out this made for TV monster movie from 2007. It stars Tron/ Captain Sheridan himself, Bruce Boxleitner, TV’s “Buck Rogers” Gil Gerard and Walter Koenig (“Star Trek”, “Babylon 5”) in a story of an ancient evil awoken by some greedy developers. Well, I say ‘stars’ but Gerard has very little involvement with the main story and delivers most of his lines sitting down and Koenig literally phones his performance in a one scene role as a local pathologist.

When unscrupulous land developer, Big Jim Burns, ignores the protests of the local Native Americans and begins a new development, he inadvertently awakens an ancient evil when his construction crew dig up an ancient skeleton. The local half-Native American sheriff, Steve (Boxleitner) finds himself caught in the middle of the trouble as he struggles to fulfil his duties to the town and to his people as the Bone Eater’s death toll rises.

Although there’s the lingering disappointment of a movie about violating Ancient Indian Burial not bringing in Craig T Nelson or Zelda Rubenstein for a cameo, the movie is actually pretty successful in its blending of (superficial) Native American mysticism and creature feature – provided you make generous allowances for the low budget, SyFy original nature of it in the first place. The Bone Eater itself is an endearingly Harryhausen-esque affair, despite being CGI it moves with a nostalgic stop-motion style that gives the movie a goofy charm. Surprisingly for a SyFy movie, it’s incredibly light on the digital core and the victims of Bone Eater are dispatched in “Buffy The Vampire Slayer”-style dustings rather than dismembered or splatted. There are some sub-plots which pad out the running time but add little to the story: there’s an aggressive young Native American who wants to take more direct, violent action against the developers and, of course, Steve has a rebellious estranged daughter whose back story is as underdeveloped as it is unnecessary to the main narrative.

The final showdown with the Bone Eater may be a little underwhelming but then Boxleitner’s not a young man anymore and the budget doesn’t really stretch to stunt doubles so you have to take what you can get. All in all, though, “Bone Eater” is passably entertaining. The Bone Eater monster is a fun if cheaply realised monster and Boxleitner’s always watchable as the noble hero. Unusually, it’s also pretty family friendly so there’s no need to keep the schlocky nonsense to yourself. Bone appétit!

5/10 

logo

Related posts

The Reef (2010) brings real sharks and real terror to #SharkWeak2 #Review

The Reef (2010) brings real sharks and real terror to #SharkWeak2 #Review

The thing I love about sharksploitation movies is they’re generally fun. Fun is a big part of the appeal, even when – or maybe especially when – they’re bad. “The Reef” is not a bad movie, but it's also definitely not a fun movie.When a group of friends find themselves stranded on a capsized...

Set your faces to stunned – Deep Space Nine is 25 years old. It’s time to head back to Bajor and start celebrating Star Trek’s underrated triumph that’s more relevant today than ever.
Halloween Re:Animated – The Simpsons Halloween Special XXIV

Halloween Re:Animated - The Simpsons Halloween Special XXIV

The Guillermo del Toro-directed opening to The Simpsons Halloween Special XXIV brings us the classiest, cleverest intro sequence ever. Riffing on the traditional Simpsons title sequence, del Toro weaves together a gleeful tour of a Springfield populated by horror cinema icons and garnished...

Halloween Re:Animated – The Simpsons Halloween Special XVII

Halloween Re:Animated - The Simpsons Halloween Special XVII

This Treehouse of Horror starts promisingly enough with a winding trip to Mr Burns' crypt where he emerges as an ersatz Crypt Keeper but it all goes off the rails when the characters start bickering with each other or - worse - they start commenting on or explaining why the visual gags are...

1 Comment

  1. The Inner Circle August 31, 2019

    Man,this makes me mourn those awesome Saturday Night creature features like “Bone Eater” which I actually watched when it came out…good cheesy fun for all!

Comments are closed.