Fantastic!

Excellent, smart action film.

An absolute waste of money

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

From what I'd heard about this movie, I went into it expecting another Tremors (the original, not the cheesy tongue-in-cheek sequels). What I got was a mix of western and monster movie that actually delivered an enjoyable experience.The characters are believable. The monsters are creepy. And the social commentary is surprisingly effective. It has the usual tale of prejudice and racism you'll often see in period pieces like this, but it doesn't beat you over the head with it and try to get preachy like so many films do.If you're looking for a good monster movie, the Burrowers definitely delivers. It's not a perfect film, but it's well paced, well presented and well worth the watch.

Reading a chapter in Kim Newman's book Nightmare Movies:Horror on the screen since the 1960s,I noticed a small section of the book focusing on Horror-Westerns.Nearing the end of the section,I spotted a title that Newman mentioned,which sounded like a great genre cross-over of the Western with a monster-movie Horror,which led to me getting ready to track down the Burrows.The plot:The Dakota Territories- August 11th,1879:Returning home, Fergus Coffey discovers that his fiancé Maryanne Stewart has been kidnapped,and that a number of her family members have been brutally murdered.Suspecting that Stewart has been kidnapped by an Indian tribe,Coffey gathers up a gang of fellow outlaws,who soon set off to track down Stewart.Trampling on any Indian tribes near by,Coffey and the gang fail to find any sign of Stewart. Interrogating a number of the tribes people,Coffey begins to hear about a group called The Burrowers.Presuming them to be a new tribe,Coffey and the gang start setting their sights on finding The Burrowers,but soon discover to their horror that they will have to dig deep into the unknown,in order to find the mysterious Burrowers.View on the film:Featuring hardly any indoor scenes,writer/director J.T. Petty soaks in every inch of the outdoor atmosphere,by using vast wide- shots,which along with giving the title a gritty feel,also superbly shows the haunted wilderness that Stewart is tracking The Burrowers in.Along with the epic wide-shots,Petty and cinematographer Phil Parmet show an expert eye in the use of shadows,with the impressive (practical) special effects for The Burrowers being wrapped in velvet darkness,so that they can slowly creep up on the viewer.Keeping the horror nerves shredded with the clever use of shadows,Petty splashes a lavish Western mood across the shaken nerves,by using candle lights and camp side fires to show the deadly terrain that Stewart and the gang are entering.Slowly allowing the haunting horror elements to seep in,Petty sets them against an excellent, rugged Western backdrop,thanks to Petty showing Coffey and the gang desperately try and stick to "the old way" in hunting down Stewart and The Burrowers,with Petty being unafraid to show his heroes in a less-then positive light,as they pull bits & pieces of info on The Burrowers out of the tribes people. Gripping the Western atmosphere with a firm Horror fist,Petty fires off dozens of horror shots,which brilliantly go from being extremely creepy, ( character's being buried alive) to delightfully squishy, (Coffey finding himself surrounded by dozens of Burrowers) as Coffey starts attempting to bury The Burrowers.

Strange movie. It's nearly Tremors, nearly Ravenous, nearly The Descent and nearly interesting.But three 'nearly's' ain't getting it done I'm afraid.Set in 1879 – 100 years before Billy Corgan found a year worth singing about – The Burrowers refer to… things, that beset a group of soldiers, civilians and cowboys searching for members of a missing presumed taken by Indians in a violent raid.The civvies have a more direct interest in finding those missing, but it seems the soldiers are driven by more sketchy motivations. It is after they indulge in some basic prolonged torture that the civvies decide to break and head off alone deep into Indian territory.It is here that things finally get to the point – and by that I mean the plot starts dealing with the events and 'things' referred to on the DVD cover. Only took half the film to get there.As the searchers forge ever onward they begin noticing shallow but obvious holes in the terrain, unnatural looking holes, near one of these a young girl is found buried in the dirt – literally buried – only her scalp barely shows on the ground surface. Stranger still the girl is alive, though catatonic, and she is immediately sent back to the town with a young boy as her chauffeur.The remaining crew move forward, by this stage as confused as we are. Until they finally meet those responsible for the holes, after this everything quickly falls into place, meaning the film can be wrapped up similarly swiftly.The design of the 'burrowers' is only so-so, they don't really look that effective which explains also why they are not shown on screen mostly as glimpses and in the fringes. In fact the director showed more close ups of various insects in the first hour than the titular creatures.I kinda liked the brief National Geographic explanation behind the burrowers living habits (think spiders) and I kinda liked the pacing near the end. But really this is like a Dean Koontz book, come up with an interchangeable monster/creature/virus/'insert scary thing X', spend two thirds of the book lazily setting the scene, then have the final third about dealing with 'X'.It's all quite straightforward and not quite worthwhile.Final Rating – 5 / 10. A brave, sincere and futile attempt at creating an original horror movie that doesn't work because even in small borrowings the original sources are obvious (and better).

I love these quality B-flicks and I always get excited when I find a new one. Now I just found The Burrowers and from the cover and some stills I even started having expectations. Furtunately this is not bad at all. It's actually a movie of very good quality. Where most B-Movies tend to be lashed-together, obviously realized for some profit exclusively, apparently some are crafted with love. The small details, the refined tone, quality cinematography and gross creatures will get you over some flaws in the script. But the fact, that it takes it's western side serious and manages to score in that genre too, makes Burrowers a cool feature, absolutely worth your time. 6/10