DVD: "The Burrowers" digs another hole

What is it about the old west that so hard to make scary? I mean, it's kinda creepy in its own right really, so what's the problem? You've got rampant and very visual sicknesses like small pox, open forests full of wild creatures, low lighting, "wild" Natives who chant and portray borderline magical practices amid superstitious settlers. If you can't find horror potential in that, you might want to give up writing and try underwater basket weaving.

And yet new-to-DVD flick The Burrowers proves that this is a horror formula that just isn't working for dammit all in Hollywood.

The concept is intriguing enough: a settler family goes missing, and despite Natives being blamed, it's some older, darker beings who travel underground that are snatching people and burying them alive. The acting is quite good, despite a few botched accents here and there. The camera work and music are decent as well, and yet I'm not so much scared as I am bored.

I can't necessarily tell you what it takes to make a good western/horror, but films such as The Cellar, The Missing, and now The Burrowers can surely show you how not to make it work. Maybe it's having "the" before the title that flags it for failure, since the movie that blended the genres best is titled Ghost Town from back in 1988.

So while Burrowers isn't a good western/horror, it's not a bad film. If you have nothing better to do some lazy afternoon, it has enough entertainment value to make it worth a cheap rental - just don't get your hopes up for being scared or finding the storyline even a little disturbing.

In a comic book, I could see the plot working, but apparently such stories just don't translate well to the big screen.