Yes. The gore - particularly “the scene” - and the cannibalism.
Finally watched this. Thought it was mostly good; Richard Jenkins was practically unrecognizable and amazing all at the same time. The at times languid pace I think helps a bit more than hinders, but Patrick Wilson must have hated all of those takes-on-a-crutch after awhile. Expressively brutal and the action is quick and violent; sometimes by the time you realize something had happened it was already over. It does remind me a bit of a low-budget western version of Eaters of the Dead/13th Warrior.
A few things did bother me, like the whole dynamite thing, and how gunshots didn’t really seem to carry until the very end when the plot needed satisfaction to finish the film. For all the talk of Matthew Fox being an Indian killer he didn’t kill very many Indians (by my count: one). I love how the troglodytes sounded all different (and silent beyond that), but was it a piece of bone or some weird funky tracheotomy that caused it to happen? Are they really mutants or something? Or are they just different?
— Alan
Dude, spoiler tags and all that.
Well, the show includes the words “savage tribe of cannibals” in pretty much every synopsis I’ve seen. Not sure why you would even suggest it to anyone who was asking for less violent fare.
I finally watched it (never got a chance to do so at Halloween after all) and I loved it. For a movie that’s 90 percent talk, 10 percent action, that talk is more exciting and fun than I expected. And yes, Richard Jenkins is practically unrecognizable. I had to struggle to figure out which character he was playing initially.
And Good Lord, I’m now chomping at the bit to see Russell in The Hateful Eight. He does cowboy better than most.
This movie was my consolation prize when I realized The Hateful Eight doesn’t open here until next weekend and, holy crap, what a consolation prize! 'Definitely one of my favorite movies of the year. The dialog and characters are very reminiscent of Larry McMurtry’s westerns – Absurdist and funny with flashes of brutality.
Unbelievable turn by Richard Jenkins, that guy is incredible.
This is now up on Amazon Prime (and maybe other streaming services?) by the way.
I watched this with my college-age daughter and my “auxiliary son” who comes over to moon over my daughter and eat all my food.
I enjoyed the hell out of it, but the teens felt that it moved entirely too slowly.
I keep getting tempted by this movie, since I love Westerns. But I hate horror movies. So I back away when I remember that.
Rock8man, watch this movie. I don’t love horror movies myself, but you’re going to like the other elements even if you really hate gore. (And if it matters, the gore here is so goddamn wild it’s sort of spectacular.)
By the way, should I watch Slow West? It looks like it’s 80% western and 20% boring, and I hate boring movies: PLEASE ADVISE.
I have to go with Mr. Zero on this, Rock8man.
The reason this movie wound up so low on my list as to almost not make my list for the year, is that it is almost impossible to recommend. It has some of the best writing of the year, if not the very best, and yet the rough parts are too much for most of the people who ask me about movies. And were almost too much for me, physically.
As Mr. Zero states above, however, the things that are great about it are worth it for someone like you. It will reward you.
-xtien
It’s actually 20% western and 80% boring.
I rather liked Slow West (as did a lot of critics with a 92 percent rating on RT). I mean, it does make it a point to include “slow” in the title. So you should probably be aware it’s more of a character piece like Bone Tomahawk. i.e. little to no action. It’s also a bit more surreal than Bone Tomahawk. I certainly liked it more than The Hateful Eight, I must say.
I have never heard of Slow West nor, unfortunately, have I yet seen Bone Tomahawk or Hateful Eight. I suck at homework.
You probably also want to add The Salvation to your watchlist, then.
Well, hell. I mean thank you, can I have another sir!
Forgot about The Salvation. The great Mads Mikkelsen chews up the screen on that one. It was a bit uneven, but still entertaining as hell.
Another foreign made western that I enjoyed was Dark Valley. It’s up on Netflix.
The Homesman is on Netflix as well, but that film ultimately depressed the hell out of me. Still, I admit it was well made.
Compared to Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s villain I’d call Mikkelsen’s performance understated.
My daughter loves horror movies - the gorier, the better. So I tell her that she had to watch this movie with me for a scene near the end. I let her know that it might seem a little slow at the beginning and she reluctantly sat down with me to watch. She loved it and never once asked me, “When do we get to that part you told me about?” The characters and dialog are just so good, especially once the trek begins.
Yikes, this was not good. I’m no horror fan, but every now and then I’ll be blown away by a You’re Next or It Follows, so I still take a chance occasionally on Tom’s recommendations no matter what horror sub-genre it is. Unfortunately, this one was a bust. All the shots in Bright Hope looked like they were shot with an iPhone on a cheap studio lot, and even the totally talented cast isn’t really working for me at the start.
Things improve a bit when our four “heroes” hit the trail, but this film still feels like it didn’t have a director so much as it had someone to aim a camera at a group of actors. And then the final act with the troglodytes, when we actually get to the horror part and the paper mache cave, well that certainly wasn’t about to turn my opinion around.
But wow, you’re absolutely right about how great the cast is, and the dialog. Jenkins is always great, so it’s not like it should be a surprise, but he’s great even by his own high standards here, as are Russell, Fox, and Wilson. They were all so good, but the movie was just so bad, I don’t think I could possibly give enough caveats to suggest even my most patient movie-buff friends give this a shot. I just have to hope they’re accidentally subjected to this somehow so that after the fact we can marvel together at the silver lining of the performances.