The Bone Snatcher (2003)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Horror	Main Menu Introduction Main Menu Audio & Animation Theatrical Trailer Trailer-Undead, Crime Spree, For The Moment, The Barber
Rating
Year Of Production	2003
Running Time	86:04 (Case: 90)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Jason Wulfsohn
Studio Distributor	First Look Media Imagine Entertainment	Starring	Scott Bairstow Rachel Shelley Warrick Grier Patrick Shai Andre Weideman Adrienne Pierce Patrick Lyster
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	?	Music	Paul Heard Mike Pickering

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	Unknown	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    South Africa is a nation renowned for many things - harsh deserts, wide grass plains, spectacular landscapes, and bizarre bonding rituals prescribed for its national Rugby team. One thing that does not spring to mind when considering South Africa is film. I dare you to name even so much as one South African film. Okay, so you got The Gods' Must Be Crazy, both I and II, but name any other South African film. See? You can't. Which is why it was a particularly enticing proposition to grab The Bone Snatcher (yes, very lame pun intended) from our review pile. So what did I learn? That South Africans are just as good at making really, really, bad movies as their Hollywood counterparts, although they at least do it at a fraction of the budget!

    The story behind The Bone Snatcher is probably the film's strongest aspect. It is set in the Namib desert (although according to my atlas the Namib desert is actually in - of all the countries in the world - Namibia, but I'll go with the filmmakers superior local knowledge on this one), which seems to be rather like our own Great Sandy Desert, except it is white. It is an impressive place - thousands of square kilometres of rolling white sand dunes, and virtually nothing else. Except diamonds that is. Out looking for a volcanic pipe that would be the indicator of another diamond deposit, three prospectors for the local mine stumble across a strange sand cave. Breaking into the cave to take a sample of the sand for later analysis, they are attacked by something and simply drop off the radar. Back at home base, the call is put out, and a motley crew of rescuers is dispatched to look for the missing prospectors, completely unawares that their own lives may be at stake.

    What works for The Bone Snatcher is the setting, the relatively good story, and a creature that is interesting and inventive. In fact, the creature effects are good enough (at least in a dodgy CGI way), to earn significant points for effort. Unfortunately, what doesn't work for The Bone Snatcher are the most important aspects of any movie - acting and execution. Lead by Canadian actor Scott Bairstow (you might remember him as the abusive boyfriend of Neve Campbell's character on Party Of Five), who is by far the most notable actor of the bunch, the cast of unknowns hailing from all corners of the globe go a long way to proving exactly why they are unknowns. Delivering lines like they are in a school play, and a primary school one at that, they cannot seem to tell when to display emotion and when not, creating some of the least sincere dialogue ever committed to film.

    The execution of this story is the other problem. The characters seem to jump around suiting the needs of the writers rather than staying true to their established characterisations, making them all seem rather schizophrenic, while the path taken through the story is far from logical. The longer the film goes on, the more scatterbrained the plot becomes, with the characters suddenly ending up somewhere that has plenty of grass, while they seemingly chose to wander in circles around the desert for days before. A creature-feature does not necessarily have to be believable, in fact it inherently is not believable, however that does not mean that it should not be based in reality, and by the end of the film The Bone Snatcher's titular creature seems more realistic than its human prey.

    The final nail in the coffin for this film is the complete lack of horror. There is very little here that is even remotely creepy, let alone horrific, or terrifying. There is virtually no blood or gore, the creature is more bizarrely interesting than terror-inducing, and the shooting style of the movie serves to put it all at arm's length, thus reducing almost any chance the movie had of engaging its audience. In fact, if it was not for the relatively creepy score work, this film would be of more use calming sick children than scaring grown audiences.

    The Bone Snatcher is a good idea that just falls apart under acting and execution that is more horrible than the movie itself, and it just goes to prove that Hollywood most certainly does not have a monopoly on the ability to make a bad movie.

Video

    Presented at 1.78:1, this transfer is 16x9 enhanced. There is no definitive information as to what the original theatrical aspect ratio of this film was (or even if it had a theatrical run anywhere), but from the framing, it is reasonable to assume that the ratio of the presentation is very close to the production ratio.

    Sharpness is good, with plenty of fine detail evident. There is surprisingly little grain visible during the daylight scenes in the desert, although night-time scenes are a different matter. The low lighting conditions are mostly responsible for this, and it never really becomes distracting. Shadow detail is quite good, although not quite as good as it might have been, with the drop off to murky black being a little too steep at times. Low level noise is not present, but the grain evident on the darker parts of the screen that are picking up some very low light from distant sand dunes is quite obvious and has a similar look.

    Colours are actually very steady. Despite the extreme lighting conditions of filming in a desert that is almost entirely made up of white sand dunes, colours are never overblown, and retain their proper balance without any problems. Night time colour is a little less well defined, but the very low lighting conditions have a lot to do with this.

    There are no compression artefacts present, and the print is clean of flecks and dirt - an even more impressive effort when considering the filming location. There is a small amount of aliasing, such as on the grille of the taxi from 6:58 to 7:09, but as most of the action takes place in the middle of the desert, there are very few opportunities for it to recur.

    There are no subtitles present on this disc.

    This is a single layered disc, and as such does not contain a layer change.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There is only one audio track present on this disc, being the original English dialogue in Dolby Digital 5.1 (at 448 kbps).

    Dialogue is generally clear and easy to understand, although there are a few instances of low-level dialogue that are a little difficult to make out. The South African accents are not particularly strong, and should not cause anyone problems with understanding. Audio sync is spot on throughout the transfer and never causes a problem.

    The music is credited to Paul Heard and Mike Pickering, and it is quite an effective score. Combining some "African" sounds with more traditional score work, it gives an interesting sound, along with a good drive.

    Surround activity is quite good. The surround channels are used for many creature effects, making the most of the rear effects channels for some rather creepy sound effects. The downside is the tendency to drop back to a very stereo soundtrack during non-action moments, which is a little disappointing.

    Subwoofer use is not particularly inventive, with very few sound effects that call for it, and the score staying away from deeper tones, it does not have all that much to do.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

Theatrical Trailer (1:10)

Trailers

• Undead (2:31)
• Crime Spree (3:43)
• For The Moment (2:02)
• The Barber (2:16)

• Trailers for Hollywood North and Between Strangers

• Trailers for Undead, Crime Spree, For The Moment, and The Barber

    The video transfer is actually rather good, with excellent clarity during the daylight scenes, and still very nice at night.

    The audio transfer is also quite good, with reasonable surround action and decent dialogue quality. It may not match the sound from a big-budget movie, but it is pretty good nonetheless.

    The extras are extremely limited - five trailers, including the one for The Bone Snatcher itself does not exactly give any added incentive to look at this release.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall