I’ve gleefully watched horror genre movies for years without so much as batting an eye — I’ve sat throughThe Human Centipedewithout flinching,MidsommarandHereditarydidn’t keep me awake at night, and yes, I’ve calledSawmy comfort movie and joked about vacationing in its disgusting bathroom more times than I can count. I thought I had built up immunity to horror’s more disturbing releases through maintaining genre-savviness, shielding me from too intense emotional or physical reactions.I thought I had seen it all.And then I watchedBone Tomahawk.
More specifically, I watched Nick’s (Evan Jonigkeit) death inBone Tomahawk, obliterating every illusion I had about my own desensitization. Nick’s death scene didn’t just disturb me, it didn’t just linger in my mind —it made me physically sick, past the point of mere nausea. I vomited, and I’m not saying that for dramatic flair: I mean it in the literal sense. I emptied my stomach in the trash can next to my couch. Nick’s death broke through the walls I thought I’d constructed with genre literacy and hit something primal within me that, while impressive, I sincerely hope I never have to experience again.
‘Bone Tomahawk’ Starts as a Western Before Plunging Into Full Horror
S. Craig Zahler’sBone Tomahawkis a western-horror blend that begins as a classic frontier rescue story before plunging into full-blown horror. Set in the 1890s, the film follows a small posse of men led by Sheriff Franklin Hunt (Kurt Russell) as they journey into remote canyons to rescue a group of townspeople abducted by a cave-dwelling tribe known as “troglodytes.” While the film’s first half has the dusty familiarity and deliberate pacing of a classic western,the latterplunges into grotesque, unflinching, and realistic violence. Deputy Nick, one of the captured townspeople, is quickly made an example of by the troglodytes, shifting the film from uneasy suspense to a full-blown nightmare.The result is one of the most disturbing scenes the horror genre has ever put on screen.
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Nick’s death is inarguably the most infamous death in the 2015 release because it’s the most visceral in the film. The gore itself was enough to make my stomach turn — Nick is pulled from the cage he’s unconscious in, and as he wakes up,he is scalped, with his own flesh stuffed into his mouth.It doesn’t end there; he is then turned upside down and bisected alive by the cave-dwelling cannibals. Butit’s not the gore alone that created such an intense reaction in me— I’ve handled splatter before. How the violence is presented inBone Tomahawkis what made the sceneunbearable to watch.
Nick’s Death Scene Isn’t Like Other Horror Movie Kills
There is a complete lack of stylization in the scene. There’s no dramatic musical score to cover the sounds of Nick’s death, and no quick cuts or heavy shadows to soften the blows. In holding the camera steady and forcing the audience to witness Nick’s horrific death,it feels as close to witnessing a real atrocity as the horror genre can come— simply put, it just feels wrong to watch. There’s no catharsis or artful abstraction to create distance between the audience and the violence. It’s horror in its purest form. Mosthorror filmsoffer some kind of aesthetic cushion through lighting, music, editing, or performance. Even when a death is horrific, it is carried out within the visual and audio language of the film.Bone Tomahawkdoesn’t offer cues to let its audience know when to brace themselves. Nick’s death is sudden and without relief. To me,it felt like witnessing a violation not only of Nick’s body, but of my own comfort. With no score to offer auditory cues, the scene forces viewers into total presence. And that sent my stomach over the edge.
The cave-dwellers don’t kill with the flair of a slasher; they kill with efficiency, their actions unceremonious and detached. There is no villain monologue to lead into the violence, and that adds to what makes the scene so gruesome: Nick’s death doesn’t play out like the typical horror movie violence. Instead, it plays like realistic human cruelty;it’s humiliating, violating, and in its own reprehensible way, honest.
‘Bone Tomahawk’ Reminded Me That I Wasn’t Desensitized to Violence in Movies
In retrospect, what hit me the hardest about the scene isthe way it exposed the lie I’d been telling myself– that I had seen so much horror that I couldn’t beshocked or disgustedanymore. Nick’s death didn’t just disturb me, it disarmed me and made me realize that the desensitization I thought was immunity was actually just a defense mechanism. And like all defenses can, it came crumbling down in a scene that runs for barely over three minutes. I haven’t stopped thinking about Nick’s death inBone Tomahawksince I first witnessed it. Every time I sit down to enjoy another horror movie that promises to deliver disgusting kills, I am mentally returned to the cave I feel I have no place in.Bone Tomahawkdidn’t just shock me, it reminded me of what horror can do when it doesn’t play by the rules. And sometimes, when it works,it breaks through even the thickest skin… and stomach.
Bone Tomahawk
