The Bonesetter (2003 Video) User Reviews

Terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible

[informerjoe · 1/10 · 27 May 2005]

Words cannot begin to describe how blandly terrible this movie is. I wish it were "so bad it's good," but it's not. It's just dull, lifeless, and boring. It's so bad I couldn't even laugh at it.

In response to other posters, Anne-Marie Frigon is not the highlight of the movie. The only person less charismatic is the director Brett Kelly, who as a true statement on vanity, cast himself as the male lead. They both look like inbreeds, sister and brother.

The gal, Sherry Thurig, is a looker. The complete opposite of Anne-Marie - attractive. This girl is tall and willowy, and can act. Although you can tell she's holding back.

All the actors seem to be holding back, especially the supporting male, Mark. I've seen less wood in a rain forest, but he's still better than Kelly. Why would Kelly keep his actors from acting? Is he really that bad a director? Everyone else has summed the story up perfectly - there isn't one. Kids are kidnapped and Kelly steps in poo to solve the crime. I know how he felt stepping in the poo, it's how I felt after watching his movie.

Yes, I tried to get my money back from the rental store. This is a home movie best left to be seen by the friends of the director (and if you search them out, you'll see those same friends were the one who gave the movie positive marks).

Abysmal

[darknessmouse · 1/10 · 8 October 2005]

Usually when a movie receives a vote of one it is because someone simply dislikes it and is annoyed it doesn't have a lower rating, and so decides to drag it down as much as they can instead of just giving it a low rating. This is not the case here.

Bonesetter is a perfect example of a 0/10 film. It does nothing right and it doesn't have the chance to because it doesn't really attempt to do anything. There are strands of a bad D&D novel kind of plot which doesn't hold together and a complete lack of any kind of acting throughout. It is clear that nobody involved in this project gave it any kind of serious effort, because even a completely patently untalented persons' hard work would amount to more. A truly awful film.

Honestly, it's just very amateur.

[rushknight · 1/10 · 17 January 2015]

I was reading back through some of my reviews recently and realized that I tend to do a lot of tearing down. But of course, I also have a penchant for the worst of movies, so I guess that would make sense. It can be hard to say good things about a film that is just really bad.

As for "The Bonesetter," it's a very amateur work. You are going to see a fair bit of work put into it, but ultimately everything is very poor in quality. The camera work in the opening sequence is very rough, and occasionally so shaky you can't even make out the picture. The acting is wooden (more oak than hickory, if yew follow me..), the characters appear to be attempting to play parts that require younger actors at times, the makeup somewhat silly, and the flow of the story is plugged full of holes.

And as always with amateur horror, garage band grind for the music. This time with at least one player who hasn't quite finished getting his guitar tuned up. To be fair, while the music did have a certain "casio" sound to it, some of the themes were fairly nice. I enjoyed some of it this time.

I think the villain was a little over planned. His attire may have fit the decade, but he still just seemed a little to circus-ee to me. I think that they would have done better by keeping him off camera and not allowing him to speak. Oftentimes what the audience doesn't get to see is more interesting than what they do get to see.

I'm forgiving but not stupid...

[bhardesty · 12 January 2007]

This "MOVIE" adds nothing to the genre, looks horrible,is bland, slow and boring. It's not scary at all. The acting is terrible. The "effects" and makeup are blah. I give any filmmaker credit for doing the work and getting their stuff out for people to see. I've never made a movie but damn, man this is really no good. Don't waist any time or money on this. I wish my review was more enlightening and in-depth but I don't have much to work with here.

I think I got this from a Brentwood collection for like a couple of bucks, and I'm still angry that I spent money on it. I am even struggling to write more about the movie. I am at a loss.

Next to nothing works at all in this movie

[TheLittleSongbird · 1/10 · 1 March 2015]

Only one asset was half-way tolerable and that was attractive Sherry Thurig who at least tries to give her character some personality. Everything else fails and not in a small way, we're talking colossal failure here.

The Bonesetter is a cheap-looking movie, camcorder video taping is much more professional-looking than the slipshod photography here, the lighting is often too dim and drab in colour, editing is all over the place in the parts that are supposed to be scary and the special effects are all very half-hearted. The music has some occasional mildly effective parts but that's far outweighed by the majority of the time that it's loud, repetitive and over-bearing.

When it comes to the story, that's where The Bonesetter falls down massively. The whole story-telling is literally a load of tired clichés re-hashed with pedestrian pacing and complete lack of scares or suspense to boot(because the whole movie is so predictable), making the relatively scant 72-minute length feel longer by seemingly twice as long. None of the characters are interesting and some are annoying, the villain is also far too obvious and just a walking cliché with no development or menace. The acting is terrible from all but Thurig, with Lloyd Kaufmann underused and going through the motions, Mark Courneyea making a near-broken marionette less wooden and Anne-Marie Frigon showing very little emotion.

A vast majority of the blame for the colossal failure of The Bonesetter lies with Brett Kelly, who stars, directs and writes and he fails at all three. His lead performance is stiff and whiny with the character making stupid decisions that don't fit within the situation. His direction makes past-prime action stars less flabby, and the script throughout The Bonesetter is so senseless and awkward-sounding that it feels like there wasn't one written for the movie at all until literally at final stages. Overall, a terrible movie with only Thurig as a redeeming merit. 1/10 Bethany Cox

The Bonesetter is a great independent horror film!

[deadly4u75-1 · 10/10 · 9 June 2005]

After getting the chance to see Brett's first film, THE FERAL MAN, I was so excited when I got my hands on THE BONESETTER. Oh man...

THE BONESETTER has a great story, the acting is awesome and the killer is top-notch.

Even though Brett directed this film, he is definitely a great actor and I am really looking forward to seeing more films that he has been in. I am wondering if this guy can do no wrong! Does this one have any gore in it? Well, I would have to say that it does have some, especially that of a character that gets his heart ripped out. Wait a minute! Is that the only gore scene? Well, even if it was one gore scene, it was a great scene! OK, now let's talk about this Bonesetter guy. I was wondering if you would ever get to see what this guy looked like and it was almost to the end when you find out and let me tell you, that is one of the creepiest guys that I have ever seen in an independent film. I definitely wouldn't want to cross paths with him.

The one thing that I enjoyed so much was seeing Lloyd Kaufman play the mayor. Come on now...when is it when you can see a mayor being talking on TV and you see the poster for CITIZEN TOXIE in the background? That was great and I absolutely love Lloyd! All in all, THE BONESETTER has a kick ass plot, a creepy villain, good effects and some really good acting. I highly recommend this flick!

*THE BONESETTER is now included in a 2-DVD set from Brentwood entitled DEAD & ROTTING. Check it out!!!

Good for what it is

[pinata-full-of-bees · 1 June 2005]

I don't want to say this movie is bad, merely poorly classified. "The Bonesetter" is not a good horror film (Its hard to make anything good when you appear to have shot entirely on a camcorder) but if you accept it as part of the genre I like to call "Borchardts"* it becomes not only a perfect example of the form, but one of the best I have seen.

A Borchardt is a Low budget film, usually horror, that has been produced, written, directed, and (this is critical) stars the same person. This is made painfully obvious through out the film. The star is decent at acting and is often convincing; but the rest of the cast (pulled from friends 9 times out of 10) is well, cardboard. Video production and effects are crude at best, and the importance, sex appeal, and intelligence of the lead are extremely overstressed.

The Bonesetter is a great example of a Borchardt, but the full on elongated french kiss between Kelly and the female lead puts it over the top. Also note the film makes reference to Kelly being involved in a relationship with a "party girl" resulting in a child, and he is fawned over by his co-worker in the film. Extremely overstressed.

But, before we damn the film, please remember that the important thing is that despite funding and equipment and all the other tough things it takes to make a movie, Kelly at least got it done, and out there. Granted, out there in a four volume collection selling for $6, but how many of your movies are on the shelf at Best Buy?

*Named after the film "American Movie"

A real pleasure

[jodi_pittman · 10/10 · 14 August 2004]

I worked on this movie and it was a real pleasure. The movie turned out to be very atmospheric and moody. it favors acting and story over blood and guts. The mood is dark but there is a good balance of humour in the movie as well. Brett Kelly is a good actor and a good storyteller. Hopefully the indie horror audience who may be be used to sub par stories will appreciate this gem. Despite what has previously been written, the lighting in this movie is actually quite good as is the cinematography. The DVD also features many excellent features such as commentary from the director and actress Anne-Marie Frigon (who shines in every scene she is in) as well as bloopers, outtakes, auditions, camera tests and more. Its really very cool. good job to everyone involved in this movie.

Well done

A good story told on a small budget.

[cayer23 · 4 September 2004]

Firstly let me "come clean" admit that I was in the film, as an extra.

That being said the film itself is a good story, well told on a very small budget. This of course somewhat effects the look and feel of the movie but in my opinion does not detract from the story or acting.

Anne-Marie Frigon simply steals the screen whenever she appears. She gets the best "one liners" and makes the most of them. Other actors, including Sherry Thurig, do not have extensive experience in front of a camera but it doesn't stop them from giving good performances.

The attempt at a creepy atmosphere is evident and with some allowance for the lack of computer aided and expensive special effects we have become used to, the movie pulls it off.

Watching it being made I came to appreciate the talents of all involved and look forward to more work from this collection of mostly local talent.

1 out of 10 on the gore-o-meter

[cannibalcam · 6 October 2006]

The first thing I have to get off my chest is the fact that this is one the Splatter Rampage part of Tempe Video. Usually, the category should involve savage blood spilling. Midnight Skater went overboard, Mulva and Filthy McNasty yes yes, but this has to be the most bloodless of the pile seeing that maybe it's a 1 out of 10 on the gore-o-meter.

A very ambitious project with a few flaws. I'll get to that in a bit.

The Bonesetter, a century old practitioner of bones. You needed adjustment or a set back, then the Bonesetter was the man until a bad rap began his illustrious career of slaughtering the weak. Now in present time, he has somehow found his way back to the land of the living to find what he was set out to do before his untimely death. Kill, kill, kill. Children become missing and for some strange reason, the evidence points to the Bonesetter's patterns which are being studied out by the local book worm who gets pushed around. Which in turn meets a woman who had her child kidnapped who happened to be looking for the book on him the legend also. Small world isn't it? The 2 hook up, smash ideas of each other and make things happen. More children go missing and the closer they get, the deadlier the game becomes. A cat and mouse if you will. The deeper the story gets, the more action takes place. Reminds me of a C.S.I. Episode other than a straight out horror flick. Not to dis, just a mere opinion on the story and style. It has it's potential but doesn't quite deliver the full punch. The kills don't live up to the Splatter Rampage credential, a sheer miss of interpretation.

All in all, still not a bad feature but if brought to a 45 minute short than probably a hell of a wallop this would give.

music make the people...

[sweetcans · 18 August 2004]

I have seen this film and quite frankly the best thing going for it is the music.

There is a very weird and creepy feel to the whole movie that is accentuated by the score all along the film. Some parts are just simply backing the whole scenes and it's great.

The titles are not in the credits, but they should have been for reference.

I am also trying to contact the director to have a copy of whatever songs are on the soundtrack if one exists,

Very well worth checking out.