How sad is this?

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

I have made no secret of disliking SyFy's movies in general, though I see them for novelty value and because there are some that actually did on paper have decent ideas to work from. That was the case with Bone Eater, a good idea let down horribly by worse than bad execution. The acting is not great, neither is it terrible, though some of the cast are either over-eager or bland and the more likable actors in the movie are not given as much to do as they had potential to. Bruce Boxleitner is the best of the lot and he tries hard, though he's done better. But what could they do with a script that was so cheesy and sometimes childish in tone and characters that were so clichéd and the very anti-thesis of engaging. Not only have most of these characters been seen before many times whether in SyFy or not but often very irritating too, also like with the Sheriff and his daughter the relationships and development between characters are never fully explored. The story is dull, formulaic and far too silly for its own good with unexciting set pieces, a severe lack of suspense, an over-familiar and all too predictable inclusion of the villain(poorly written and over-compensated acting-wise) vs Native Americans angle logic lapses and a ridiculously contrived finale. The soundtrack sounds cheesy and even out of place apart from some atmospheric and rousing parts in the chase sequences, and the effects are both stiff and daft in look. Neat idea for the creature, but apart from the phantom skeleton horse, it looks pathetic and doesn't have any impact at all. The editing is often choppy too, there are the inevitable(and occasionally with SyFy fun to spot) continuity errors especially with the whole one hour left of daylight and it is still early afternoon thing, and the filming has moments where it is much too dark. Overall, bone-jarringly bad and one of SyFy's worst. 1/10 Bethany Cox

Since you've got the plot by now, we'll go right to the cast and special effects. There are a slew of old TV stars in this thing and some have aged better than others. Boxleitner has held up pretty well, although his acting is still what it always was, which isn't much. George Koenig (Chekov from the original Star Trek) makes a cameo as the coroner and does his usual capable job. Veronica Hamel looks ghastly! A once beautiful woman, her face could pass for the Nazca Desert in Peru. William Katt's (Greatest American Hero TV series of the 70's) once bright red hair is completely white and he is barely recognizable as the "simple country doctor". The cast also lists Gil Gerard (TV's Buck Rogers), but I'll be danged if I saw him. Unknown Clara Bryant appears as the sheriff's daughter and displays her two magnificent talents. Jesse Janzen plays her love interest, much to the sheriffs disdain. I suspect the sheriff doesn't like him because his eyebrows are just too freaky looking.Special effects, you ask? Two words - highly amusing. The Bone Eater looks like a much larger, bonier and angrier "Crow" of MST3000 fame. He (it?) never really eats any bones, or anything else. He just swipes at his victims and they scream, then disappear in a cloud of dust. I must admit that this is the first movie I've ever seen where 82 people are murdered, yet there is only one sign of blood and that is from a knife fight between the sheriff and an angry Indian.The best, and funniest, effect is when the Bone Eater waves his hands (phalanges, actually) and conjures up a horse made out of dust, then rides his dusty steed to a soundtrack of some really cheesy western style music. Hilarity ensues.All in all, a real bomb. But I give it 2/10 for making me laugh on an otherwise uneventful Saturday afternoon. If you're bored and need a tickle, this one's for you.

Construction workers disrupt the Native American burial ground of a large, hulking skeletal monster which disintegrates it's victims with it's touch, breath, or bone sword! The head honcho over the resort project, Krantz(Jim Storm)orders his construction crew to keep their skeletal findings secret for much would halt the continuing development if the nearby Katona tribe caught wind that remains were being dug up and disturbed. An aging Bruce Boxleitner, likable as always, stars as half-breed Sheriff Evans trying to keep peace between the Katonas and Krantz's crew. The peace was strained, at best, but with that skeletal monster running rampant making it's victims vanish without a trace, soon Krantz wants answers to why members of his crew are missing..Evans begins losing citizens as well. Evans is warned by Katona Chief Storm Cloud(Michael Horse)that an ancient demon, the Bone Eater, has been loosened and can only be stopped with a sacred war axe(..the axe was removed by a worker who found it's remains with the weapon lunged inside)now in the back seat of his daughter Kelly's(Clara Bryant, who wears tight jeans and shirts to reveal how daddy's girl has grown into quite a striking lady)boyfriend's truck. Evans must somehow defeat the demon if the killing will stop..and this must occur before the Eclipse or it's power will become too strong for anyone to vanquish.A solid cast, floundering in an embarrassing horror outing. The CGI, isn't very good, although the monster could've been quite threatening if done with a better budget. It rides a horse made from dust chasing after it's prey, for Petesake! Some cameo appearances include BUCK ROGERS Gil Gerard as Evan's deputy Big Jim, STAR TREK's Walter Koenig as a coroner, & HOUSE's William Katt, as a Country Doctor attending to the wounds of Evan's deputy. None of these cameos last longer than one minute or so..sad, really. Adoni Maropis, impresses in an underwritten role as a brooding Katona, Johnny Black Hawk, who wishes to use the Bone Eater to drive the white man off his tribe's land. Jennifer Lee Wiggins portrays Kaya, a tasty dish of a Katona female whose against Black Hawk's hatred for the white man and wishes for Evans to follow his Indian blood regarding putting an end to the Bone Eating monster. This might be worth sitting through if just to see Boxleitner dressed in war paint and Indian garb. I felt for the actor, to be honest, as Bruce tries to keep a straight-face in such a terrible movie. In yet another over-worked and tiresome cliché, Bruce's sheriff has an estranged relationship with his daughter, whose 17, hot, and wanting to date the "bad boy"..although this winds up being an underwritten sub-plot as is most of the plot concerning the killing skeleton and many of the poorly developed characters.

Another Indian legend you never heard of before is let loose. As the name implies, this is a vengeful wraith who likes to absorb the skeletons of people while they're still using them. As usual, ancient burial grounds (can you say, "Poltergeist?") have been disturbed by clichéd greedy land developers building stuff.The CGI, if it had been better, might have made the effect more treacherous looking, but they skimped on the budget, and it shows--to comical effect. The unleashed creature probably should have been kept off stage during its first several killings-that might have added some mystery or impending doom atmosphere-but the inept director decided to show us in the first five minutes what it looks like, and it wasn't impressive. The deaths are just poorly done, again with shoddy CGI. I guess ancient spirits always kill by using cheap special effects. As for the "victims," they look they're going to laugh any moment while they do goofy screams. It's always obvious who's going to get it: a character with only a few lines shows up, strange noises are heard, CGI dots fly, exit character. Repeat (several times).Still, there's a few chase scenes featuring the monster that actually made this thing watchable. Unfortunately, the director seems to be using these as a device to fall back on (so it's used too often) when he can't think of anything else for his characters to do. Overall, it's pretty silly, but I've seen worse. This flick is cheap, but it's oddly fun to watch.