The Burrowers (2008)

Director: J.T. Petty

Starring: Clancy Brown, David Busse, William Mapother, Jocelin Donahue, Alexandra Edmo, Brighid Fleming, Karl Geary, Christopher Hagen, Dough Hutchinson, Galen Hutchinson, Laura Leighton

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Evil will surface.

Plot: On 11 August 1879, in the Dakota Territories, the Irish Fergus Coffey intends to propose his beloved Maryanne Stewart; however her family is attacked apparently by the Sioux and they vanish. Fergus joins to the experienced John Clay and William Parcher and a teenager to track down the family of settlers. Along their journey, the team-up with the army troop led by the sadistic and racist Captain Henry Victor that also believes that the Sioux are responsible for the abduction of the families in the territory. The quartet has friction with Henry and decides to ride without the escort of the army and the black cook Callaghan decides to travel with the group. After an Indian attack in the woods, the survivors discovers that the Sioux are not responsible for the slaughters but actually a pack of carnivorous creatures from underground called The Burrowers and they have to fight to survive.

My rating: 6/10

Will I watch it again? Nah.

I'll give anyone a ton of credit for making a genre film (sci-fi/horror/etc) that mixes it up in a Western.  I will literally watch any horror Western no matter how bad it looks.  If I ever get to make movies of any kind I'd love to be a part of a Western.  This one's not too shabby. We learn little bits about the creatures (and we don't see much of them until near the end) along the way.  The acting is fine, there's a pretty good story, the North Dakota plains look awfully lonely and Joseph LoDuca provides a good score.   The creature effects are sometimes good and sometimes not so good.  I love how they poison their victims, burying them alive under the ground, saving them to eat later.  Nice touch.  The ending's not upbeat at all and that's a big plus.  It is leisurely paced which might throw some people off and I didn't find it all that engaging but there was a lot to like and it's not a bad way to spend an hour and a half on a lazy Saturday afternoon.