THE very first scene in Bone Tomahawk - where a man's throat is slit - sets the tone for this grim and gut-wrenchingly gruesome Western by director S Craig Zahler, whose debut feature makes The Wild Bunch (1969) look tame in comparison.

Zahler takes conventional cowboys-and-Indians fare and blends in graphic horror, a dash of quirky humour and Tarantino-esque discourses on random topics. Somehow, he emerges with a palatable whole.

Life for the good citizens of a sleepy frontier town called Bright Hope is tough but mostly uneventful. On any given day, a drunk may be draped over a table at local saloon The Learned Goat, but there's nothing that gruff town sheriff Franklin Hunt (Kurt Russell sporting a world-class moustache) hasn't seen before or can't handle. His main concern is finding a way to get his ineffective and overly talkative "backup deputy" Chicory (Richard Jenkins) to stop his constant blathering.