Bone Tomahawk is a 2015 American Western cannibal film written and directed by S. Craig Zahler in his directorial debut, and starring Kurt Russell, Patrick Wilson, Matthew Fox, Richard Jenkins, Lili Simmons, Evan Jonigkeit, David Arquette, Zahn McClarnon and Sid Haig.

The film is about a small-town sheriff who leads a posse into a desolate region to rescue three people who were abducted by a cannibalistic Native American clan.

Casting began in October 2014, with Peter Sarsgaard, Timothy Olyphant, and Jennifer Carpenter signed on to play before being replaced by Wilson, Fox, and Simmons respectively due to scheduling conflicts.

Hunt sends the confident gunslinger John Brooder to fetch the town's doctor to tend to the leg wound.

The Professor, an educated Native American, links the arrow to a tribe that he refers to as "Troglodytes" and locates the valley they inhabit on a map.

A mortally wounded Hunt stays behind with a rifle, promising to kill the remaining three Troglodyte males when they return, to prevent them from terrorizing Bright Hope.

However, Zahler believed the novel could not be adapted on a low budget and opted to write a rescue Western, Bone Tomahawk, instead.

[9] Zahler incorporated some details of his personal life into the script, such as when Brooder says, "Smart men don’t get married", to reflect his own disinterest in marriage.

"[9] When selling the movie to investors, Zahler used directors such as John Cassavetes, Larry Clark, Wong Kar-wai, and Takeshi Kitano as stylistic reference points, despite none being filmmakers in the Western genre.

[9][12] Zahler thought that Russell was a good fit for the role of Sheriff Franklin Hunt, who read the script and quickly agreed to perform.

[13] On October 31, 2012, Russell, Sarsgaard, Richard Jenkins and Jennifer Carpenter signed on to play a sheriff, a cowboy, an oldster, and one of the captives of troglodyte cannibals, respectively.

[16] The other ensemble cast added by the director includes Sean Young, Geno Segers, Fred Melamed, James Tolkan, Raw Leiba, Jamie Hector, Jamison Newlander, Michael Paré, Zahn McClarnon, David Midthunder, Jay Tavare, Gray Wolf Herrera, Robert Allen Mukes, and Brandon Molale.

[13] Russell described Sheriff Franklin Hunt as a stubborn and simple good man, whose behavior and tone were very in line with the era in the film.

[12] In order to shoot scenes with multiple characters on-screen, Bone Tomahawk was shot with a RED Dragon camera at a ratio of 2.35:1.

[18] Zahler avoids using too many close-ups in the film, remarking that "most of the time you interact with people, you’re not looking just their faces from a close distance unless you’re intimate."

[9] Bone Tomahawk is well-known for its violent scenes in the troglodytes' cave, most notably when Nick is mutilated and torn in half by the cannibals.

[9][12] Zahler shows a dry presentation of violence in his films, using long shots to capture horrific violent acts on people, similar to Cannibal Holocaust (1980).

[9] Herriott made the music accompany "long shots, rather than close-ups" and function as mood-setting or establish scenes and make transitions when there was no dialogue.

[21] All music is composed by Jeff Herriott and S. Craig ZahlerIn August 2015, RLJ Entertainment acquired distribution rights to the film,[22][23] which had its world premiere at the Fantastic Fest on October 1, 2015.

[4] The Blu-ray disc includes behind-the-scenes production footage, theatrical trailers, a collection of posters, a Q&A session with the director and cast and a deleted scene lasting for about two and a half minutes.

[29] Bone Tomahawk received positive responses from critics and at festivals for its acting (particularly for Kurt Russell, Richard Jenkins and Matthew Fox), grittiness, Zahler's direction, and dialogue, which is stated to be a combination of The Searchers and various cannibal films.

[34] Praise was given to the story and script, of which Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian enjoyed the mix of horror and Western genres, a sentiment that Kim Newman of Empire agrees to.

[35] Reviewers such as Jeremy Aspinall from Radio Times called Bone Tomahawk a refreshing entry to the Western genre.

[43] Manchester Metropolitan University professor Matthew Carter accused the film of perpetuating racist stereotypes against Native Americans, arguing that the film's "story is informed by one of white America’s oldest and most paranoiac of racist-psychosexual myths: the captivity narrative..." in reference to O'Dwyer attempting to rescue his wife Samantha from a Native American tribe.