J.T. Petty's THE BURROWERS BluRay Review

Editor, Europe; Rotterdam, The Netherlands (@ardvark23)
J.T. Petty's THE BURROWERS BluRay Review
(The Who? On What?)

Now here's a nice surprise: J. T. Petty's horror western "The Burrowers" turns out to be available on BluRay after all. While it was made with a cinematic release in mind back in 2008, Lionsgate shelved the movie (dare we say "burrowed"?) only to release it direct-to-DVD in 2009. Rumors abound that this was done for political reasons as the film apparently had been a pet project of the previous management.

Be that as it may, audiences lost out in the end. When I caught the film in a cinema during a festival I was very taken with the movie (reflected in my review), in fact it turned out to be one of that year's favorites for me. And it certainly demanded to be seen on a big screen as the cinematography was gorgeous, with loads of wide landscape shots. It's a damn shame so few people were able to see it in the way it was intended. Instead, Lionsgate dumped it on DVD.

In fact Lionsgate shafted the movie twice, as a release had been announced on DVD and BluRay only to have the BluRay canceled in the end. And therefore the only way to own this film in HD was by way of illegal torrent. Boo-Hoo.

And then last week I suddenly stumbled upon a BluRay of "The Burrowers".
Legal, HD, regionfree.
For all the world to buy and see.

The only catch: it's German. Don't run away yet though, as the HD-DTS English soundtrack is included and even English subtitles are on it.

Wunderschön!

Note: I'm cribbing the story and movie details from my earlier review eighteen months ago. If you want to read something new or are just interested in the BluRay, continue to the "About the BluRay"-part!


The Story:

Somewhere in the US Western frontier in 1860, whole farmsteads are being attacked and massacred. Whoever the culprits are, they leave only some bodies while the rest of the people go missing. The local settlers are sure: "them Injuns" are the cause and a posse is formed to pursue the evildoers. This group sets out in a faint hope of rescuing any survivors, and a less-faint hope for extracting some revenge.

Yet the evidence they find is strange, for this tribe uses unknown weapons and leave very strange holes in the ground wherever they go. The band also discovers that all local Indians are as scared of these attackers as the settlers are, and worse: whatever it is they're following starts stalking them at night...


The Movie:

Being a movie with subterranean monsters, it's easy to dismiss "The Burrowers" as a "Tremors" clone. Yet the two films are very much different, and even though I love "Tremors" for re-introducing the world to the fun of monster flicks at the time it was released, I think "The Burrowers" is the more original movie of the two.
As such it is of course also more difficult to market, so each and every bit of advertising you see will tell you this is "HORROR!!!", with "EVIL!!!" in it. But this will give people entirely the wrong idea of what to expect.

For starters the whole "Western" angle isn't just a gimmick. "The Burrowers" really IS a western, first and foremost. A damn good one even. The whole first half goes into explaining who the people are, what they are doing in that area and how the relations with both the ever-present army and ever-present natives work. This part is surprisingly well researched on an historical level, far more than you'd expect from a direct-to-DVD horror flick. Instead of going the ha-ha self-referential route, this film takes its surroundings serious. There are a few teases showing the audience that yes, there will be monsters later on, but the focus is on the setting of the story and its main characters.

The effect of all this detail leaves its marks later on in the movie. No matter what faults James Cameron's "Titanic" had, its sound design and art direction DID give you the feeling you were actually on the big boat during the flashback story. The same thing happens here in "The Burrowers": you can almost smell the landscape after a few days of being on horseback with these people. It helps that the cinematography by Phil Parmet ("The Devil's Rejects") is nothing short of stunning.

Acting is good all around, but I have to single out Clancy Brown here. We all know and love him as the Kurgan from "Highlander" or Sgt. Zim from "Starship Troopers" but his grizzled lawman here is something else, chewing the scenery like it's gum. He keeps being billed first in all lists which is maybe unfair as the true leads would be Karl Geary and William Mapother, but it has to be said he OWNS the scenes he's in as the ultra-experienced overbearing strongman of the group. Older and sporting a big beard, I spent half of the movie wondering if it really was Clancy Brown or not. Mark my words: if he ever does a leading role this well it might just net him an Oscar Nomination one day.

As for gore, "The Burrowers" may be more subdued in this aspect than people might expect. Sure, it gets bloody at times and what the creatures do to people is very creepy indeed (good for a few nice shivers up your spine at least), but the film never becomes a gore-fest.
The most disturbing scenes in the movie concern the standard racism leading to the casual torture and extermination of the natives, who by the way are not shown as saints in any way and pose a very real threat instead.

Of course the film changes gears when it turns into a "trapped heroes versus monsters" film. But even then it manages to cleverly sidestep the standard conventions of the genre, and keeps its moral compass pointing the same way. The mix of social commentary and monster-bashing here even reminds me of Bong Joon-Ho's "The Host", of all films.

The monsters themselves (described by Petty during the Q&A afterwards as "naked molerats with some Komodo Dragon mixed in...") look pretty good and consist mostly of on-set practical effects, with CGI only being used to add an occasional extra limb or so.


Conclusion:

Instead of making a fun monster flick J. T. Petty set out to make a serious western. It just happens to have some fun monsters in it too! With this mix, "The Burrowers" has become a strange hybrid. Monster fans might be bored by all the adult western stuff, while moviegoers out for more serious fare might be scratching their heads when the monsters arrive. Mixing "The Searchers" with "Aliens" is a brave choice indeed, you might even say it's foolish or disrespectful to the audiences of both. Expecting it to become a good movie can be seen as rather pretentious. The pretentiousness accusation doesn't stick however, as "The Burrowers" is a very good movie, maybe the best I've seen in quite a while.


About the BluRay:

With trepidation I let my player swallow this disc. Would it be an upscale? But no: there is absolutely no denying the sharpness of the image. Fields of softly swaying grass show with individual stalks visible, and you can see the weave in people's clothing. In one word: wow.
Colors seem strangely subdued though, while contrast is fine. A bit of a head-scratcher as this seems to be a deliberate effect, yet I cannot recall the film being this desaturated when I saw it at the Imagine 2009 Festival. It's not a big worry though and for those people who want it more colorful: there must be a dial or two on your television capable of taking care of that.

Next is sound. The default setting is for a German HD-DTS soundtrack but thankfully as stated earlier the original American track is there as well, also in HD-DTS. Optional German and English subtitles are included.

And that's basically it. The extras are feeble: one redband trailer in SD, a slideshow (in HD, granted) and what must be one of the shortest promos ever, showing a nocturnal attack by the titular burrowers. Prior to the release of "The Burrowers" there were several web-isodes of stories taking place within the same storyline, with Indians fighting the burrowers, but none of those are on this disc. Neither is a commentary track with J. T. Petty or a making-of, either of which would be much welcomed.

But the main feature is well presented, and the disc is not priced as a Special Edition.
So because "The Burrowers" is such a damn good film which deserves to be seen in high definition yet is otherwise non-available on BluRay, this disc comes highly recommended.
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