The Bone Snatcher

The name of this film and the clips that I saw caused me to believe that this film would have excitement and interesting moments. I was disappointed. The desert sands were interesting but this film inched along at a snails pace. It started fine with an underground cave and something coming out but then tried to involve us with the lives of some very unlikeable human beings. As they found dead bodies, or should I say, skeletons with some flesh on them, they began a search for the reason why? At times it became somewhat different as something was following them in the desert. Some type of black ooze or something that would begin to eat the flesh of humans. As the flesh was munched upon, a bag of bones began to creep after the remaining humans. The reason for this black ooze as we find out was pretty bad, ants? Unbelieveable! Then the ending made no sense. I guess the motto of this film will be, when you have an itch and see an ant, quickly kill it before the ant's friends smell your flesh.

Check this one out if you can - either at the cinema or on DVD, whatever. It's really strong or at least well executed. The actors did a pretty decent job and in some scenes are extremely intense. Then you have some fine cinematography, big vistas and that kind of thing and some crazy angles and shots as well. I wasn't that happy about the story all the way through but I never really am with these genre kind of films. It starts of at a diamond centre and then moves out into the sand dunes and the desert where the characters explore old myths and stories and then find out they are not just stories! There were some effects - some of them were traditional and some of them computerized and most of them worked quite well.

source: The Bone Snatcher

I gave this movie 2 instead of 1 just just because I am a polite person. This movie made me loose 90 minutes of my life in which I could have done something useful for the human kind or just me. The dialog is poor, the actors never look scared! Even if it's supposed to be a horror movie. For example the scene in which Kurt collects the bones of his former colleague. He should be frightened, but he looks quite normal. The chick of the movie is such a cliché. The one thing I liked about her is the dress she wore in the final scene.And, by the way, the end was extremely predictable with the cocoon blinking pinkly in the box. As a matter of fact, I was thinking more of an ant walking around on the back seat of the car. But it still didn't surprise me.

Just watched this and was really surprised by how good it was. I'm really surprised by the low rating and negative comments on the IMDb. The creature effects were completely ace and the lead actor was totally hot. I'm gonna buy this on DVD. The scenery, photography and soundtrack were good enough to feature in a major studio production and the CGI effects were used sparingly and effectively. It did fall apart a little at the end when it seemed the film makers had boxed themselves into a corner and didn't know how to end their film and I didn't like the set up for a sequel ending. Overall though this was a good old-fashioned monster b-movie directed with some skill and was genuinely scary in places. My rating: 8

Well i suppose most girls try to avoid these movies and so do I normally. But my boyfriend really wanted to see this one so I had no choice. I was actually really surprised because I ended up caring about the characters and what the story was saying and I just wished that it had gone further like that. I used to watch the usual horror thrillers but they were just blood and guts and I was either bored or disgusted. This has just the right balance between cool looking scenes and clever scenes and the tension and scary parts really get going when they you want them to. Overall I'm glad I saw this and feel like getting on a plance and checking out those amazing sand landscapes and dunes where they filmed a lot of the scenes. The effects were OK, some really good, but the story and that side of things worked very well.

The Bone Snatcher starts in the 'Nambi Desert South Africa' where Clive (Sean Higgs), Paul (Langley Kirkwood) & Harvey (Jan Ellis) three diamond prospectors are, well prospecting for diamonds. Unfortunatelty for them they discover something rather nasty lurking under the sand... Jump to 'Vancouver British Columbia' where systems analyst Dr. Zack Straker (Scott Bairstow) is told that he has to go to the Namib Desert to do a bit of field work, analysing systems I guess. Jump back to the Namib Desert & Zack has arrived at 'Eland Mining', he has to pass security before he is driven to the main complex. The three prospectors have been reported missing & the security guys are going to pick them up on the way, attractive female Mikki (Rachel Shelly), Karl (Warrick Grier), Titus (Patrick Shai), Kurt (Andre Weiman) & the driver Magda (Adrienne Pierce) are the rescue team. It's not long before they run into the prospectors abandoned truck & nearby discover the remains of two of them, the bones stripped of all the flesh. Karl decides the third prospector was responsible & they set off in search of him but only find his bones as well, they also discover that there is something nasty out there lurking in the bleak isolation of the Desert... This English, Canadian & South African co-production was directed by Jason Wulfsohn & is fair to middling entertainment. The script by Malcolm Kohll & Gordon Render is a little slow to get going, after the three prospectors meet their ends at the start no-one else dies for over 40 minutes & is rather clichéd, the attractive female, the computer nerd, the tough macho guy, the religious nut-case there to add a supernatural spin on things &, of course, the disposable character's merely there to die & do very little else. The creature itself is disappointing in the sense that it turns out to be a collection of ants that steal peoples bones so they can use them as a skeleton & walk around, why exactly? Surely just walking across the ground would be just as efficient? Add that to the fact that all they want to do is find a new nest & aren't bothered about killing anyone it all becomes rather lacklustre & dull. I don't particularly understand the need to hunt them down & destroy them either, as I've said they don't purposely set out to kill anyone & they are buried deep in the Namib Desert far from civilisation. Having said that it provides fair entertainment & is far from the worse horror film ever but at the same time far from the best & in keeping with the rest of the film the climax is dull & by-the-numbers. Director Wulfsohn can't exactly do much with the monotonous Desert locations & it starts to get tedious to look at. Most of it takes place during broad daylight which doesn't help the atmosphere & it lacks any real tension or excitement. Forget about any gore because there isn't any, a few bones & someone has their arm devoured. The creature itself is a mixture of both CGI & traditional puppet effects which are decent enough & look OK. With a surprisingly healthy $6,000,000 budget The Bone Snatcher comes across as a missed opportunity & where did all the money go exactly? The entire thing is set in the Desert, the creature & CGI effects are used sparingly, there are no action scenes or big set pieces & no big name actors. Six big ones sounds like a lot of money considering what ended up on screen. The acting is annoying & most of the cast talk in thick South African accents which sometimes makes it a bit difficult to understand them. The Bone Snatcher is an OK way to pass 85 minutes but is far from spectacular, in fact average is the word I'd use. I can't say I hated it but I can't say I liked either, disappointing.

Here's the plot in a nutshell. Smart whizz scientist guy in the US gets sent out to do field work in some mining area in Africa. He doesn't want to go but his boss doesn't give him a choice. It's stinking hot when he gets out to the desert and everyone thinks he's a loser. They take him out to some of the other mines in a security truck, they break down and then one of the guys finds some dead bodies. From here on there's some detective stuff, some action and some back and forth between the scientist and this macho survival ex-army guy. There's something out in the dunes and these guys are going to do anything to get home alive. There's some standard kind of scenes here and there's some really cool stuff as well. It's also got some smarts and starts getting into local myths and stories about evil out in the desert. I didn't know a lot about it going in and I haven't seen most of the actors before, except the American scientist. The acting was better than I thought it would be and so were a lot of the shots and cinematography. Some of the accents were a little hard to understand and it seemed too short in places.

The plot seemed to follow the science fiction standard of a group of people on a mission that encounters something that wants to eat them. The group consists of a scientist, a pretty girl, a "native" person with native knowledge or the extranormal, a macho dolt, a capable and intersting middle age woman, and a non-descript guy who is the first to go. So far this follows movies like "The Angry Red Plantet" and "Alien". The monster or the opposing life form (hey, I can be P.C. and inclusive) is original and interesting. The acting is basic and the direction uninspired. The plot has some moments of stupidity that interrupt the suspension of disbelief because no one would do what they did given the character's circumstances; e.g. abandon the broken down truck with all their supplies in the midst of a big desert after the search plane spots them. I am assuming the actors are all South African (excepting the American scientist)or they are better actors than I imagined. They have the accents down pretty good and fooled me. I was particularly impressed with Adrienne Pierce who plays "Magda" - a nice looking, somewhat older than Brittany Spears, strong willed woman who drives the big Mercedes four wheel drive truck that serves as the "space ship" used to wander around the desert. She is kind of a sunburned "Ripley" character. I enjoyed the film and recomend it to those who enjoy this genre. I would like to see more of Adrienne Pierce.

I expected very little going into this movie but came away feeling satisfied that I'd finally seen somebody do something different and new with the horror genre. If you're bored of slasher movies, torture *, carbon copy creature features and the whole 'college kids spend the weekend in a cabin in the woods' rubbish that passes for a plot hook these days, The Bone Snatcher will give you a very pleasant surprise. The acting isn't Oscar quality but it's really not half bad at all. The South African desert rats displayed a subtle Mad Max-ian quality, their rough and rugged nature neatly underlying a disconcerting sense of chaos and brutality that never quite rears its head but often threatens to do so. Other reviewers may see this as a wasted opportunity but I see it as crucial in juxtaposing the 'fish out of water' element of the main protagonist - the nice guy with whom we, the viewer, must relate if we're to give a damn what happens - compared with the environment, people and situations with which he is entirely unfamiliar. And that's before all the horror kicks in! This is, ultimately, a monster movie and there are a million of those. But Bone Snatcher takes an intelligent line, shuns the status quo and offers up something we can really get our teeth into. You'll be simultaneously convinced and disturbed, which is a great feeling for a true horror fan. As Doctor Zack Straker (the hugely watchable Scott Bairstow) asserts when faced with Karl's (Warrick Grear's) lack of reason: "there's method in this system". And though Straker never really engages scientific method, the line does throw a few hints the way of the viewer. And if brain cells are engaged (which, shock of shocks, they can be in this movie) the twist in the tale can be predicted. Plot and monster aside, you'll also want to watch for the delicious Rachel Shelley, a British actress known more here in the UK for her modelling roles in advertisements than her filmography. But don't let that put you off. She's a decent actress and brings some aesthetic interest to this movie. Negatives are obvious and should fall squarely on the shoulders of the director. The potentially incredible set location is squandered. Not once does the desert turn its murderous, bone-parching attention on our group of heroes. They always have plenty of supplies, lots of water, ample support from nearby bases. Where the film lacks severely is in its utter failure to mix the merciless horror of being stranded in the middle of a wasteland with no food, no water and no hope of rescue with the presence of a determined enemy. But what there isn't is hard to miss if you're not concentrating too hard and what there is more than makes up for the missing aspects. Somewhere, in a parallel universe, somebody is enjoying the movie I know this could have been, but for us it is what it is. An enjoyable, entertaining and surprisingly clever creature feature that takes the genre and gives it a good hard shake.