The Burrowers (2008) - 7/10

The Burrowers is a mixture of all types of genres that has some cool creatures and ideas but is too slow for the first half to be called great. What's interesting about this movie is it's basically like tremors or pitch black but set back in the past as a western, meaning lots of horse riding and badass characters who like to kill people. The film starts as a revenge flick for the characters think some crazy indians killed these women and kids in the middle of no where so they create a party to search out and hunt them down. But as we find out, it's not the indians doing the murdering but these old ass humanid creatures who vomit on your body and release this parasite that breaks down the body into mush so they can feed underground. I liked the dark night scenes only lit by the torches and the little hints of creature off the distance so that we get this impending dread of their power in numbers. As the western landscape provides a great backdrop to the isolation and horror these characters face, its the special fx that actually come through in providing believable monsters that stalk the people. By sacrificing people or using sunlight and spears, it's cool to see them battle these Burrowers with conventional weapons instead of just guns and bombs like in current films. By giving us 3 dimensional hardass characters who must battle the elements as well as these creatures, they up the conflict and realism so that the end fight scene feels well deserved. The only problem that I found with this was that the pace was all over the place, one minute trying to do an action scene then taking 10 minutes for exposition. I would rather of had a more constant pace of action and attacks instead of putting it all towards the finale. Mostly though, The Burrowers is weird blend of westerns, horror, and sci fi that could truly be one of the more original movies i've seen in a while.