THE BURROWERS (2008) – not a perfect movie by any measure, but how often do you get to see a horror western that actually delivers? JT Petty (director of the disturbingly creepy docu-whatsit S&Man) turns in a slick, well-produced western that takes everything you love about cowboys and injects it with a healthy dose of disgusting monsters (the details of what they do with their victims will stick with you for a long time to come. It’s not called The Burrowers for nothing). 1879. After a frontier family is wiped out, the good people of the Dakota Territory form a posse to hunt down the Native Americans they assume did the deed. But it doesn’t take long before Clancy Brown (Kurgan from Highlander), William Mapother (Lost), and Dough Hutchison (also Lost) realize that what took the family wasn’t human. The pacing can get funky, and the movie sometimes fails to capitalize on the tension it’s building, but those are quibbles. Overall, this is an overlooked horror gem that overcomes its low budget with some deeply gutchurning scares and a reminder that no matter how hard we fight, most of the time we just can’t win. (Watch it!)
