Kurt Russell heads an unlikely team of gunslingers tasked with rescuing a group of settlers kidnapped by a group of man-eating creatures in this wholly unpredictable and often shocking fusion of Western and horror.

The tiny Wild West town of Bright Hope will be familiar to anyone who's ever seen a Western, modern or otherwise. But here alongside the saloon, the jail, the noble sheriff and the ever-present threat of violence, the threat lies also in the form of a tribe of savage cave-dwelling cannibals. When late one night said tribe details the town jail and kidnaps local doctor Samantha O'Dwyer (Lili Simmons), an imprisoned outlaw and the on-duty jail guard and spirits them away to their cave in the distant hill country, Samantha’s cowpoke husband Arthur (Patrick Wilson) sets out to bring her home. What do you need in such circumstances? A posse is what. So it is that Arthur is joined by town sheriff Franklin Hunt (Kurt Russell), his ageing deputy (Richard Jenkins) and a strong-willed gunslinger (Matthew Fox) as the beleaguered quartet set out through bleakly barren territory into a hellish world. A trip where, assuming they even manage to survive the journey, they will reach an enemy more ruthless than anyone could ever have imagined.

An audacious final showdown makes this feel in equal parts The Searchers and The Hills Have Eyes and gives this gleefully grisly generic hybrid the feel of a cult item in the making. For here lies a Western that is both original and shocking. Violent (with a capital V!) and unpredictable. Don't say we didn't warn you.

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