Bone Eater : L'Esprit des morts

All I can do is laugh. Wow. I like Jim Wynorski's movies, I really do. I mean, Chopping Mall is a classic. But this, what happened to this guy? He used to make funny horror movies, that tried to be good. But this was hardly even funny...I mean, I guess it was, because I laughed. The villain is incredible. I mean, horrible CGI. It looks...terrible. And the movie has no gore, and no nudity as redeeming qualities. It is rated PG-13. A movie named "Bone Eater" you know won't be a blockbuster movie, you know it probably won't have a smart script. A movie like this may rely on gore...but no. It doesn't rely on anything really, it's just...crap. Check it out if you want to laugh, though. But don't expect a good movie. I hope Jim Wynorski goes back to movies like Chopping Mall and Ghoulies IV, because this and Komodo Vs. Cobra ain't cutting it.

It's a low budget creature feature. Hundreds of them have been made over the decades with the same simple mindset. But people seemed to be entertained by them.

But lets get the facts straight. The movie was shot in California in an area called the Alabama Hills near the base of Mount Whitney.

We were diligent in getting script approval from the local Paiute Shoshone reservation to shoot a scene on their property and the co star Michael Horse is a Mescalero-Zuni Apache. None of these Native Americans had a problem or were offended by the story. I'm offended that you guys print something that is not based it fact and leads people to believe that we are somehow insensitive.

Call the movie what you will but the truth needs to be told about the people involved. A critique is one thing but to print statements that are untrue is another. Come on guys this should not be a PC courtroom.

Another Indian legend you never heard of before is let loose. As the name implies, this is a vengeful wraith who likes to absorb the skeletons of people while they're still using them. As usual, ancient burial grounds (can you say, "Poltergeist?") have been disturbed by clichéd greedy land developers building stuff.

The CGI, if it had been better, might have made the effect more treacherous looking, but they skimped on the budget, and it shows--to comical effect. The unleashed creature probably should have been kept off stage during its first several killings-that might have added some mystery or impending doom atmosphere-but the inept director decided to show us in the first five minutes what it looks like, and it wasn't impressive. The deaths are just poorly done, again with shoddy CGI. I guess ancient spirits always kill by using cheap special effects. As for the "victims," they look they're going to laugh any moment while they do goofy screams. It's always obvious who's going to get it: a character with only a few lines shows up, strange noises are heard, CGI dots fly, exit character. Repeat (several times).

Still, there's a few chase scenes featuring the monster that actually made this thing watchable. Unfortunately, the director seems to be using these as a device to fall back on (so it's used too often) when he can't think of anything else for his characters to do. Overall, it's pretty silly, but I've seen worse. This flick is cheap, but it's oddly fun to watch.

I have made no secret of disliking SyFy's movies in general, though I see them for novelty value and because there are some that actually did on paper have decent ideas to work from. That was the case with Bone Eater, a good idea let down horribly by worse than bad execution. The acting is not great, neither is it terrible, though some of the cast are either over-eager or bland and the more likable actors in the movie are not given as much to do as they had potential to. Bruce Boxleitner is the best of the lot and he tries hard, though he's done better. But what could they do with a script that was so cheesy and sometimes childish in tone and characters that were so clichéd and the very anti-thesis of engaging. Not only have most of these characters been seen before many times whether in SyFy or not but often very irritating too, also like with the Sheriff and his daughter the relationships and development between characters are never fully explored. The story is dull, formulaic and far too silly for its own good with unexciting set pieces, a severe lack of suspense, an over-familiar and all too predictable inclusion of the villain(poorly written and over-compensated acting-wise) vs Native Americans angle logic lapses and a ridiculously contrived finale. The soundtrack sounds cheesy and even out of place apart from some atmospheric and rousing parts in the chase sequences, and the effects are both stiff and daft in look. Neat idea for the creature, but apart from the phantom skeleton horse, it looks pathetic and doesn't have any impact at all. The editing is often choppy too, there are the inevitable(and occasionally with SyFy fun to spot) continuity errors especially with the whole one hour left of daylight and it is still early afternoon thing, and the filming has moments where it is much too dark. Overall, bone-jarringly bad and one of SyFy's worst. 1/10 Bethany Cox

1986 brought us Chopping Mall from director Jim Wynorski, a classic in the genre. This here, Bone Eater won't be remembered. It contains a lot of very cheap and bad CGI but it's worth watching for the old thespians to see.

I guess that the budget went to the casting in stead of the effects. Main lead is by Bruce Boxleitner (Tron legacy (1982 and 2010)), but there are others to recogniz, Willam Katt from House (1986), Walter Koenig (from the Star Trak saga as Chekov),Veronica Hamel from Hill Street Blues (1981-1987) and Jim Storm from Dark Shadows (1966).

The story itself was rather okay and the acting was also okay but the CGI teared it into a funny flick. To give you an example of cheap effects, the earthquakes were done by shaky camera's and you could easily see that the trees weren't moving.

If you want to see the old brigade again than this is surely one to watch as a starter on a horror night with your pals. But if you think it will be a scary flick, forget it.

Gore 0/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 0,5/5 Story 2/5 Comedy 0/5