The Bone Snatcher (2003)

Absolutely Fantastic

A Masterpiece!

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

There is an interesting idea here. It is a sort of weird mix of John Carpenter's The Thing, H.P. Lovecraft with sand thrown in. Lots of sand. For anyone who has seen The Thing and read Lovecraft sand surely doesn't spoil things. It actually makes for an interesting setting that is not too often used in horror. In fact, it is not really used much in any type of movie.Perhaps it's the fact that such a featureless landscape is hard to imagine as anything other than dull and certainly not frightening. The typical desert doesn't have many, if any at all, caves or any other crevices and burrows where something awful can hide. So just where does a demon, that can strip someone's skin clean off their bones hide? Well, you'll just have to watch to find the answer, but unfortunately it is that answer that'll provide you with a let down. Like I said, the idea is good, but the manner in which it is shown commits one of the cardinal sins of the horror genre and that's showing too much too quickly. Virtually every horror movie that does so automatically just slips a few notches. It doesn't become frightening. Startling at best, but that's just not enough. Also, as another letdown is the lack of atmosphere. The cinematography hardly does justice to the setting and it relies too much on the mediocre special effects to cause chills. Predictably, those chills aren't nearly as chilling as they could have been. Also, the film seems to strive a little too far in giving a scientific explanation for the horror. That doesn't affect the film as bad as the other things, but it does take away a good deal of the mystery.The manner in which is presented that is real down, but the initial idea remains a very good one. Meaning horror fans will want to tune in, if just for that. --- 5/10Rated R for horror images and profanity. Ages 13+

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

I think it's easy to give this movie a little more praise than it deserves. But, if this movie had come out in the 1950s, it would have been a smash hit. Since I'm not really from that generation, I can't fully appreciate them, and I couldn't fully appreciate this one either.The characters don't really know what foot to stand on, and I don't know who to blame, the actors or the script. Even in the face of devastating tragedy, people's personalities don't flipflop as much as the characters did in this movie. The only good moments of the movie come too late and too short to appreciate them. Thought I must admit, the special effects are pretty good for a movie of this type & budget.Without ruining anything, let's just say that the climax to the movie is shorter than and as exciting as, well, this review. And the actual "winding down" ending of the movie - which in typical films lasts but a few minutes - is longer than the actual climax of the film.I hope you have a good imagination - you'll need it to give this movie the extra humph it needs to deserve your attention.

In the heart of the Namib desert, a group of miners and scientists discover a bizarre life form living beneath the sand—a life form that needs human bones to stay alive. "The Bone Snatcher" is an African horror film that debuted on the sci-fi channel as one of their "original movies", despite having quite a decent budget ($6,000,000) and being extremely well-made, two things you rarely see from a sci-fi channel flick. The film is visually stunning. The camera work and cinematography are truly on par, or even BETTER than most films Hollywood produces. The actors are all unknowns but give perfectly fine performances, especially Warrick Grier. The monster is both conceptually and visually very, very cool. The creature effects are extremely good in this flick, far better than what you see in most made-for-TV horror films. I loved the score too; the music is fantastic! Lots of African drums and bongos mixed with a slightly electronic track for good effect. I wish there was a CD…"The Bone Snatcher" is a finely-crafted, beautifully shot, well-acted monster movie. It's not scary as some have said but it's certainly leaps and bounds better than most direct-to-video horror movies, and trust me, I've seen a LOT of those in my time… Definitely worth checking out. 7.5/10.