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 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.

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"

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.