There will be times during the excruciatingly ponderous first act, and even into the less ponderous yet still plodding second, when you may wonder why you’re still watching Audrey Cummings’ Western Place of Bones. The set-up is drawn out, the characters are, albeit initially, writ straight from any number of Western films you’ve seen previously, and the plot is an all too familiar theme of ‘good people plagued by outlaws’.
Persevere, however, and you’ll be rewarded with a sting in the tail that, while not wholly successful in justifying what has gone before, does at least deliver a welcome plot twist and some suspenseful action.
In the late 19th Century, a mother (Heather Graham) and her daughter (Brielle Robillard) are struggling to survive following the death of the husband and father. The last thing they need is to take in an injured ne’er do well, but as they seem like good people, that’s what they do, and as such, they come under attack from the gang pursuing him led by a moody Tom Hopper.
Following in the same vein as horror-adjacent films such as Bone Tomahawk, Cummings blends the genres well, delivering a stylish, atmospheric Western. Yet the pedestrian pace feels like an attempt to mask that this is a film with one simple idea. The reveal right at the finale, following a well-constructed, customary shoot-out, is a surprising and shocking notion, but you’re left wondering if more could have been made of it. Intended as one last twist, it is unarguably the most interesting element in the film, but it is one that requires a firm commitment to reach.
PLACE OF BONES is available to stream in the US.
