Bonehill Road (2017)

I’ve never shied away from covering independent flicks here at the site, though some subgenres of horror are much more difficult to pull off than others. But like I’ve said in the past in many ways the independent scene is where most of the creativity and interesting movies are coming from. Here director Todd Sheets gives us his take on a werewolf movie, which is one of those subgenres that are very hard to do on a budget.

Things start off with a woman and her daughter being caught up in an abusive situation. The husband/father is basically beating the hell out of his wife when the tables get turned and they escape. The mother decides to head to her father’s house but along the way they hit something in the road that eventually leads them to crashing the car. That is when the werewolves show up and terrorize them! They manage to escape to a nearby farmhouse only to discover a creepy psycho has been torturing women there and they end up tied to chairs at the kitchen table. Some days you just can’t win.

Horrible things happen including some murder, stabbing, forcing a vegan to eat meat… that turns out to be her friend! Eventually the ladies turn the tables and beat the hell out of the abusive man, which given how the movie starts is damn satisfying. But then there are still werewolves to deal with and now they have arrived at the house for supper. Also arriving is grandpa come to check on why his daughter and granddaughter are missing. Grandpa is played by the legendary Gary Kent which is insanely cool. More violence happens and then there is an escape. Who lives and dies? I’ll not spoil it because Bonehill Road is a must watch for horror fans.

Damn it Todd Sheets how did you manage this movie! It appears that this movie only had a budget of around fourteen thousand dollars. Not only does he put some decent gore effects on the screen for that, but we get several werewolves as well. Not shitty CGI ones either, but just like the gore it is all practical work. Did you hear that? He made kick ass werewolves with practical appliances for far less than the catering budget for those big budget CGI werewolf crap fests that the studios keep pushing on horror fans. Thru a combination of makeup artists who are just that… artists and Sheet’s knowing how to shoot the scenes it all works perfectly. And I’ll be damned if we don’t also get a couple of transformation scenes that are equally as impressive.

I love the werewolves!

The movie is worth spending your money alone on what I’ve already shared above about the makeup and special effects. Toss in a story that is entertaining, well-paced, and surprising and there is no reason not to love Bonehill Road. The twist with the werewolves disappearing for a while during the big fight with the crazy serial killer was odd but worked. Like I mentioned earlier it also the demise of the killer gave a nice resolution to the abusive conflict. Even if it is by proxy seeing the character fight back and kick ass was nice. I’ve also already mentioned how much I enjoyed seeing Gary Kent on screen, but he isn’t the only familiar face. Linnea Quigley pops up as one of the women being held hostage by the psycho. This isn’t your typical “stunt casting” which turns out to be a glorified cameo to put their names on a DVD box. Here Sheets gives both genre vets actual parts to play. I dug that.

I could keep going on but won’t. Bottom line is that this is one of the best independent movies to hit distribution in the last few years. Do yourself a favor and find a copy. I highly recommend Bonehill Road.

© Copyright 2019 John Shatzer