The Burrowers
Encyclopedia
The Burrowers is a 2008 horror/thriller film with a Western
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...

 theme. The film is based on a seven-part television series from director JT Petty
JT Petty
JT Petty is an American film director, author, and video game writer. His films and novels contain elements of the horror genre. He is best known for his writing on the Ubisoft video game, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell...

.

Plot

When a family of Dakota Territory
Dakota Territory
The Territory of Dakota was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 2, 1861, until November 2, 1889, when the final extent of the reduced territory was split and admitted to the Union as the states of North and South Dakota.The Dakota Territory consisted of...

 pioneers is violently abducted and a posse is assembled to venture into the badlands and rescue them, the frightening truth they discover in the hills leads them to believe man may not be the only hunter stalking the Old West. The year is 1879, and beyond the fringes of civilization a handful of courageous pioneers maintain settlements while exploring the unknown territories. One night, under the shimmering Western stars, a family from one of these settlements is brutally dragged into darkness by a group of unknown invaders. At first the kidnappers are thought to be hostile Native Americans, and a posse forms to bring the family back home safely. Venturing out into the unmapped territories is an Irish immigrant desperate to find his lost love, a naïve teen eager to prove his worth, a former slave seeking his fortune after gaining his freedom, and a hardened pair of battle-weary Indian fighters. But nature's wrath and the tomahawk
Tomahawk
Tomahawk usually refers to:* Tomahawk , a type of axe made and used by Native Americans* Tomahawk , a cruise missile built in the United StatesIt may also mean:- Military and transportation :...

s of hostile tribes are not the only threats that this group will be forced to contend with, because as the bodies begin to multiply and the truth about the abductors gradually emerges, these rescuers will find out that there are forces in this world that cannot be described in human terms—and that seem to have motivations beyond our comprehension.

A species, called "Burrowers" by the Natives, used to subsist on buffalo
American Bison
The American bison , also commonly known as the American buffalo, is a North American species of bison that once roamed the grasslands of North America in massive herds...

. When white settlers depleted the buffalo, the species began to survive on human meat - first hunting nearby Indians and later the settlers. One tribe in particular, the Ute
Ute
-Tribes:*Ute people, an American Indian people now living primarily in Utah and Colorado**Southern Ute Indian Tribe of the Southern Ute Reservation, Colorado**Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation, Utah...

, have experience in combating the hunter-species. The "Burrowers" first lace their victims by cutting them and drugging them with a toxin. The victim is then buried alive and eaten only after decomposition has begun. By the time the film's protagonists meet up with the Ute their numbers are severely depleted, but the Ute method of drugging someone already infected with "Burrower" toxin proves effective. When the "Burrowers" go to eat the twice drugged victim they themselves fall asleep and are vulnerable, especially to the rays of the sun, which are the only apparent thing that can kill them. However, the surviving member of the posse, the Irishman Coffey, is unable to discover exactly what the Ute used to drug the "Burrowers", as most of the remaining Ute are executed by the overzealous Cavalry. The film ends with the suggestion that the "Burrower" attacks will continue. In addition to the environmental message about changing ecosystems, the film assesses prevailing attitudes towards Blacks and Natives amongst the settlers in the West, with especial focus on the brutality of the US cavalry.

Cast

  • Clancy Brown
    Clancy Brown
    Clarence J. "Clancy" Brown III is an American actor and voice actor. He is known for his roles in live action as The Kurgan in the cult classic film Highlander, Byron Hadley in the award-winning The Shawshank Redemption, Brother Justin Crowe in HBO's critically acclaimed Carnivàle, and Career...

     as John Clay
  • William Mapother
    William Mapother
    William Reibert Mapother, Jr. is an American actor and former teacher, perhaps best known for his role as Ethan Rom on the television series Lost.-Personal life:...

     as William Parcher
  • Laura Leighton
    Laura Leighton
    Laura Leighton is an American actress. She is best-known for the role of Sydney Andrews, introduced in the 1990s television series Melrose Place. She reprised the role in the 2009 series of the same name...

     as Gertrude Spacks
  • Sean Patrick Thomas
    Sean Patrick Thomas
    Sean Patrick Thomas is a Guyanese-American actor. He is perhaps best known for his co-starring role in the 2001 film Save the Last Dance, as well as his television role as Detective Temple Page in The District and also "Barber Shop".- Early life :Thomas is the son of immigrants from Guyana and was...

     as Walnut Callaghan
  • Doug Hutchison
    Doug Hutchison
    Doug Anthony Hutchison is an American actor, known for his roles in The Green Mile, as corrections officer Percy Wetmore, Eugene Victor Tooms in The X-Files, as Horace Goodspeed in Lost and as Davros in 24. He owns the production company Dark Water Inc.-Personal life:Hutchison was born in Dover,...

     as Henry Victor
  • Karl Geary
    Karl Geary
    Karl John Geary , is an actor and club owner. He moved to the United States at the age of fifteen in 1987; he later got a green card in a visa lottery for Irish illegals, and ultimately became a naturalized citizen. He has seven brothers and sisters.He appeared in Madonna's Sex book...

     as Fergus Coffey
  • Galen Hutchison as Dobie Spacks
  • Jocelin Donahue
    Jocelin Donahue
    Jocelin Donahue is an American actress and model. She is known for her lead roles in Ti West's horror film The House of the Devil and The Burrowers. In May 2011 she began filming "Live at The Foxes Den" in which plays the female lead, Kat, opposite Jackson Rathbone .In her modeling career she has...

    as Maryanne Stewart

Release and reception

The film was not released in theaters although it played at the Fantastic Fest and the Toronto International Film Festival. The Burrowers has been available on DVD as of April 21, 2009.

The film received a 67% "fresh" rating at Rotten Tomatoes, a rating of 4/5 from Horror Hound Magazine and a positive review from Eric D. Snider, of film.com, who said "Suffice it to say that the film, a very accomplished effort by up-and-coming horror maker J.T. Petty (watch his S&Man if you can find it), is suitably creepy and exhilarating once it gets past its slow start. It's also an impressive mixture of the Western and horror genres, something that has rarely been done at all, let alone this well."
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