Rating: R | Runtime: 94 minutes
Release Date: August 23rd, 2024 (USA)
Studio: The Avenue Entertainment
Director(s): Audrey Cummings
Writer(s): Richard Taylor

And I have no intention of ever leaving.

Remote doesn’t begin to describe the home of Pandora (Heather Graham) and her daughter Hester (Brielle Robillard). The closest town is ninety-five miles away. All their neighbors have left. And the land is so dry that the latter throws rocks onto the dirt to go through the motion of planting seeds so as not to disappoint her deceased father’s wishes of always doing her chores. Meat hasn’t been on the menu in days and the mush they eat instead is barely keeping them whole. So, when a gunshot suddenly rings out in the distance, we’d be forgiven for thinking they won’t stand a chance at survival.

This is our introduction to Audrey Cummings 1876-set western Place of Bones (written by Richard Taylor). Hester goes inside to sleep with the “big knife” under her pillow while Pandora keeps watch with her revolver on the porch. When no one interrupts them by sunrise, they assume their isolated sanctuary has remained undisturbed. But it’s not long before Hester stumbles upon a barely breathing thief bleeding out by her father’s grave. Whether a conscious Calhoun (Corin Nemec) would spell trouble or not, his mere presence puts them in danger due to a gang of bad men hunting him for vengeance.

The film is thus mostly the lead-up to an inevitable gunfight. It’s the easy-to-underestimate Pandora against the difficult-to-rattle Bear John (Tom Hopper). If she can acquire some rifles, her trio might stand a chance. If his oft-distracted cohort comprised of men who act on impulse rather than intelligence don’t sour his plans, he’ll be leaving with a saddlebag full of stolen cash. But before either gets their chance to walk away alive, a bloodbath must ensue courtesy of an expert tracker (Gattlin Griffith’s Cherokee Jack) and an infinite supply of stubbornness on both sides. It’s a decent little suspense-filled affair.

Most of the appeal lies with Graham and Nemec verbally sparring for the duration as a woman of conviction and a man of greed. The two give us a lot to chew on as we wait for Bear John’s crew to arrive (his own actions conversely begging us to ignore their one-dimensional evilness by making us endure empty examples). Talk about the necessity of money and/or pride tells us that neither Pandora nor Calhoun will back down until they’re either dead or the last one standing. They’re an effective pair that gives the otherwise straightforward plot intrigue even if the whole progresses pretty much exactly as it must.

Taylor and Cummings do try and throw a curveball at the eleventh hour to remind us how the proceedings have more or less distracted us from the question of how Pandora and Hester have been able to survive this long, but I wonder if that revelation could have helped spice things up by coming out earlier. Because while it retroactively colors everything that came before it to earn a wry, if fleeting, smile, it doesn’t change the fact that it all actually unfolds with much less excitement.

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(L-R) Heather Graham and Brielle Robillard in PLACE OF BONES; courtesy of The Avenue Entertainment.