Director S. Craig Zahler has cultivated an impressive following for his brutal genre movies over the years. While some of his scripts have had legends such as Ridley Scott and Michael Mann attached, he has also directed three gems himself. Among his directorial efforts are Dragged Across Concrete and Brawl in Cell Block 99, both starringVince Vaughn against type. He’s now working on his fourth feature, The Bookie & the Bruiser, also starring Vaughn. Zahler’s debut film, on the other hand, was headlined by Kurt Russell. A brutal Western that earned a shout-out from Oscar-winner Guillermo del Toro, the movie is streaming for free in the United States this month.
Del Toro described the movie as “gnarly, brutal stuff” in a social media post several years ago. He was joined in the film’s appreciation by none other than Stephen King, who wrote on social media, “I was expecting nothing but a time-passer on a rainy Wednesday morning, and got a low-budget Western epic. The dialogue alone makes it well worth watching. Beware the last act, when a man is literally torn apart.” The movie in question was released theatrically in 2015, grossing around $500,000 against a budget of nearly $2 million. But it found an audience after debuting on the PVOD market, thanks in no small part to excellent reviews.
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Collider Exclusive · Taylor Sheridan Universe Quiz Which Taylor Sheridan Show Do You Belong In? Yellowstone · Landman · Tulsa King · Mayor of Kingstown
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Four worlds. All of them brutal, complicated, and built on power, loyalty, and the price of survival. Taylor Sheridan doesn’t write heroes — he writes people who do what they have to do and live with the cost. Ten questions will reveal which one of his worlds you were made for.
🤠Yellowstone
🛢️Landman
👑Tulsa King
⚖️Mayor of Kingstown
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Where does your power come from? In Sheridan’s world, everyone has leverage. The question is what kind.
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Who do you put first, no matter what? Loyalty in Sheridan’s universe is always absolute — and always costly.
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Someone crosses a line. How do you respond? Every Sheridan protagonist has a line. What matters is what happens after it’s crossed.
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Where do you feel most in your element? Sheridan’s worlds are as much about place as they are about people.
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How do you feel about operating in the grey? Nobody in a Sheridan show has clean hands. The question is how they carry the dirt.
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What are you actually fighting to hold onto? Every Sheridan character is fighting a war. The real question is what they’re defending.
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How do you lead? Authority in Sheridan’s world is never given — it’s established, maintained, and constantly tested.
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Someone new arrives and tries to change how things work. Your reaction? Every Sheridan show has an outsider disrupting an established order. Sometimes that outsider is you.
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What has your position cost you? Nobody gets to where these characters are without paying for it. The bill is always personal.
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When it’s over, what do you want people to say? Sheridan’s characters all know the ending is coming. The question is what they leave behind.
Sheridan Has Spoken You Belong In…
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The show that claimed the most of your answers is the world you were built for. If two tied, both are shown — you’re complicated enough to straddle two Sheridan universes.
🤠 Yellowstone
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🛢️ Landman
👑 Tulsa King
⚖️ Mayor of Kingstown
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You are a Dutton — or you might as well be. You understand that some things are worth protecting at any cost, and that the modern world’s indifference to history, to land, to legacy, is not something you’re willing to accept quietly. You lead from the front, you carry your family’s weight without complaint, and when someone threatens what’s yours, you don’t escalate — you finish it. You’re not cruel. But you are absolute. In Yellowstone’s world, that combination of ferocity and loyalty doesn’t make you a villain. It makes you the only thing standing between everything that matters and everyone who wants to take it.
You thrive in the chaos of high-stakes negotiation, where the money is enormous, the margins are thin, and the wrong word in the wrong room can cost everyone everything. You’re a fixer — the person called when a situation is already on fire and needs someone with the nerve to walk into it. West Texas oil country rewards exactly what you are: sharp, adaptable, unsentimental, and absolutely clear-eyed about what people want and what they’ll do to get it. You’re not naive enough to think this world is fair. You’re smart enough to be the one deciding who it’s fair to.
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You are a Dwight Manfredi — someone who has served their time, paid their dues, and arrived somewhere unexpected with nothing but their reputation and their wits. You adapt without losing yourself. You build loyalty through respect rather than fear, though you’re not above reminding people that the two aren’t mutually exclusive. Tulsa King is for people who are still standing when everyone assumed they’d be finished — who find, in an unfamiliar place, that they’re more capable than the world gave them credit for. You don’t need a throne. You build one, wherever you happen to land.
You carry the weight of a system that is broken by design, and you do it anyway — because someone has to, and because you’re the only one positioned to do it without the whole thing collapsing. Mike McLusky’s world is for people who are comfortable operating where there are no good options, only less catastrophic ones. You speak every language: law enforcement, criminal, political, human. That fluency makes you invaluable and it makes you a target. You’ve made your peace with both. Mayor of Kingstown belongs to people who understand that keeping the peace is not the same as being at peace — and who do the job regardless.
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The Western Gem Is Waiting To Be Discovered
We’re talking about the Western horror gem Bone Tomahawk, in which Russellplays a sheriff who leads a posse to rescue people kidnapped by a group of cannibals. The movie also features Matthew Fox, Patrick Wilson, Richard Jenkins, and David Arquette. Bone Tomahawk now holds a “Certified Fresh” 91% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, where the consensus reads, “Bone Tomahawk‘s peculiar genre blend won’t be for everyone, but its gripping performances and a slow-burning story should satisfy those in search of something different.” Russell, who was filming for Quentin Tarantino‘s The Hateful Eight at around the same time, retained his character’s facial hair in that film. Meanwhile, Wilson was experiencing a major boost thanks to his work in the Conjuring and Insidious franchises, and Fox was coming off a generational run on Lost. You can watch Bone Tomahawk for free on Tubi this month, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
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