Welcome back to Rotten Ink and to another “From Horror Movie To Horror Comic” update. For this one we will be chatting about an indie horror film as well as the comic book based around it, both done by filmmaker Brett Kelly! This is what I love to see here at Rotten Ink, a horror filmmaker turning his films into horror comics for fans to checkout in order to not only bring attention to the film, but also give horror comic readers something new featuring their favorite horror characters. The film and comic we will be talking about is The Bonesetter that was released in 2002. So if you are ready, let’s beware of 7:00pm as that is the time that brings him!
The Bonesetter was a man that used to travel around and reset the bones of the townspeople who would break them in the 19th century, but every night when he would leave at 7pm, kids would go missing, and when he was caught he was dealt with as they killed him. Now 100 years later, the Bonesetter has returned to the town of Munster and kids once more go missing as this killer is on the loose again. The Bonesetter is a Satanist that is now supernatural and has a ghastly appearance with grayish skin, wears a black top hat and smells like brimstone and this alone turns the blood cold of his victims and cause them fear. The Bonesetter can also appear and disappear making him very dangerous as he can attack as well as snatch in the blink of an eye. He also is a master of breaking bones and can do so to cause not only pain but also death to those that dare cross his path, and his strength is powerful as he can snap the bones with ease. He also is on a mission to murder seven kids on the seven day of the seventh month at midnight in order to get more powerful and that is why he kidnaps at 7pm as the number seven means something to him and his twisted religion. He also taunts his adult victims with threats and warnings as he gets great pleasure in watching them become fearful and sad when he takes their children away. He is also very strong and can toss grown humans around like they are paper dolls and is skilled in hand to hand fighting, can punch through a human body showing that he is truly a evil force. But while the Bonesetter is powerful, he does have a weakness. If he cannot kill the kids at midnight ,he painfully disappears into thin air only to rise at a later time to try again to complete his mission. The Bonesetter might not be the goriest of killers we have covered here nor is he the most dangerous…but he could be one of the most evil as his crimes are against the children.
So now that we have taken a look at The Bonesetter, the child killer, we should now take a few moments to take a look at the film he is from that of course is called The Bonesetter. And like always, we will be taking the films plot from our friends at IMDB, and then I briefly will write about the film’s production and then after that my thoughts about the film. So if you are ready, let’s take a look at this film before 7pm as that time brings him out and I am not in the mood to get my bones broken.
The Bonesetter (2002)
“In the town of Munster, children are going missing. According to one mother, it is the doing of bonne homme sept heure . . . the Bonesetter. Its up to two librarians, a cop and a single mother to stop him! He’s coming. At seven o’clock”
Brett Kelly is a Canadian filmmaker who had worked on three indie horror films before making The Bonesetter in 2002. His first film was Night Songs in 1999, followed by 2001’s Planet Blood and finally The Feral Man. But it was The Bonesetter that got him the attention of the then-growing indie horror film scene. For this film, Brett Kelly not only directed the film but also wrote and starred in as the lead role, and he would hire such names as Sherry Thurig, Anne-Marie Frigon, Mark Courneyea, Tara Rheaume and Jody Haucke would play The Bonesetter. The film was filmed around parts of Canada including the real life town of Munster and was a true low budget production complete with gorilla-style filming. The film would shoot for around thirteen days and would even have some recasting during production, and once completed Sylvain Lavigne would come in to score the film with a number of bands also having songs featured. Once done the film would get released by Tempe in 2004 on DVD and would be meet with mixed reviews as some critics were too harsh on it and many fans of indie horror enjoyed its creepy story and classic SOV style, attitude and production. The film would spawn a sequel in 2005 called “The Bonesetter Returns” and two short films with one in 2009 called “The Legend Of The Bonesetter” and the other in 2015 called “A Tale Of The Bonesetter” plus it got a comic book. Now the film is being released for viewers to see by Wild Eye Releasing on digital and on streaming.
Back in the late 90’s and early 2000’s, it felt like a boom was happing again for independent horror films as many great directors were going like Andy Copp, Chris Seaver, Henrique Couto, Chris LaMartina, Brian Singleton, Andrew & Lucas Campbell, Todd Jason Cook, Matt Hoffman, David “The Rock” Nelson, Brad Sykes, Danny Draven, Brandon Womeldorff and even myself among many more were making these horror films and finding all different types of success. Another one of these awesome Indie Horror Filmmakers going was Brett Kelly, who I discovered thanks to Tempe Video, B-Independent website and Gates Of Gore website with the first mentioned being the one releasing his work on home media and the other two being amazing websites that covered and reviewed classic backyard and low budget cinema from around the world. Then when the film got its DVD release from Tempe, I got to see it for the first time and have to say I enjoyed it, and even when watching it again I really enjoyed the creepy fun nature of the urban legend feel of the story. Plus when you watch the film, you can see that everyone involved had heart and truly believed in the film they were making, and that goes a long way as so many films are made for nothing more than profit with no care put into them. If you like indie horror films that feel like an urban legend put to tape, then The Bonesetter is for you! I hope that one day Brett Kelly makes a third film and a second issue in the comic series!
So now that we have talked about the Bonesetter himself as well as the 2002 film he is from, we should now take a look at and review the indie comic book that is based on the film that was released by the film’s creator Brett Kelly. The first thing I want to do is thank Brett Kelly who had a copy of this comic that he was willing to sell me and make this update possible. I want to also say once more to all the indie horror filmmakers who are reading this to always consider a comic book based on your film as they make amazing promo items. And with thats I want to remind you all that I grade these comics on a star scale of 1 to 4 and am looking for how well the comics stay to the source material, entertainment value and art and story. So with that, let’s see what horrors the Bonesetter has in store for us on these comic pages.
The Bonesetter # 1 ***
Release in 2006 Cover Price $0.00 Brett Kelly # 1 of 1
It’s bedtime for the campers at Munster Campgrounds, and they decide that they are going to instead tell each other a ghost stories and the first one is the origin of The Bonesetter! The camper talks about how The Bonesetter would enter a town and offer crude medical services to the injured and by 7pm he would hunt down and kill kids for Satan before leaving. One day some villagers got together and hunted down The Bonesetter and murdered him, but he swore revenge before his death. And just then The Camp Counselor comes in and tells them all to go to bed, as The Bonesetter is peeking into the window waiting for some kills. We then flash back to the 1930’s and Jack is a father who lives in a apartment building with his two kids and he is having a rough time as he has lost his job at the factory and money is running out fast. As Jack is sitting there stressed about life, The Bonesetter appears and tries to make a deal with Jack about taking one of his kids away, but Jack refuses and runs Bonesetter off who in turn laughs as he is going to take one of this kids anyway as he was just toying with the down and out father.
This comic that is based on the indie horror film The Bonesetter proves that more and more filmmakers should be making comics based on their films and what is cool about this one is that Brett Kelly wrote both stories featured and even lettered the last story making the creator of the film and characters involved in the comic. As I just stated, the comic has two stories with one being campers telling the legend of The Bonesetter as a ghost story and the other is about a stressed father being teased by The Bonesetter who is messing with him before taking one of his kids’ lives. And while both stories are really cool, I do think the Campers telling the origin of the killer is the better as it was a great way for readers to truly get to understand the evil nature of The Bonesetter and also did a great job of making you want to see the film if you had not yet seen it before reading this comic. The Bonesetter in this comic is evil and really does get joy in killing as well as messing with the minds of his victims! He is very sneaky and cruel and hunting down the kids to slaughter for Satan seems to be his one goal in the afterlife. The comic does have some bloody kills and does justice to the film it based on. The cover is really cool and showcases The Bonesetter standing on a pile of bones and is eye catching if you are an indie horror comic reader. The interior art is done by two artist with the first being Chris Prunckle, and I really dig his style. The second being Christopher Herndon who is also good and has a more underground indie comic look to his style. Over all I think this is a good indie horror comic based on a cult classic indie horror film, and if you can track down this comic and like the film you should get it. Check out the artwork below to checkout the art style used in this comic.
So as you can see, The Bonesetter comic book was well worth tracking down as it is a fast, spooky quick read and truly does do the film its based on justice. And to be honest, many of Brett Kelly’s films would make great horror comics as such ones as Konga TNT, Ghastlies, Attack Of The Giant Leeches, Kingdom Of The Vampire, Prey For The Beast and The Feral Man all come to mind. But with that, its’ time to end this update and for me to tell you want the next update will be about and that’s DC Comic hero Metamorpho who is the Element Man. So until next time, read a horror comic or three, watch an indie horror film or two and as always support your local horror host. See you next time as we once more showcase a classic DC Superhero.
