Bone Eater is a low-budget 2008 horror Made-for-TV Movie directed and written by Jim Wynorski and produced by CineTel Films about a bone monster killing people and absorbing their bones. It stars Bruce Boxleitner, Michael Horse, Adoni Maropis, Clara Bryant, and Jim Storm.
The movie starts with a construction crew sent by an unscrupulous land developer named Dick Krantz (Storm) to build a casino on top of a Native American burial ground. picking up an ancient Native American relic they dug up. However, this unwittingly awakened the monster buried underneath, which kills the three of them and absorbs their remains, going on a killing spree. Local Sheriff Steve Evans (Boxleitner) ends up in the middle of a conflict since he is 1/4 Native American and 3/4 Caucasian. On top of that, he has to deal with a rebellious daughter, Obstructive Bureaucrats, and Johnny Black Hawk (Maropis), another Native who wants to use the creature to get revenge on the town.
Bone Eater has examples of the following tropes:
- Bad with the Bone: The Bone Eater kills its victims from afar by throwing bone shards at them, and even wields a sword made of bones in its final fight with Sheriff Evans.
- Breath Weapon: Despite having no lungs, the Bone Eater can somehow spew a gas that disintegrates its victims into dust.
- Dem Bones: The titular monster is a skeletal being constructed from the bones of multiple skeletons.
- Hellish Horse: The Bone Eater can summon a ghostly skeletal steed to chase victims who try to escape riding horses or motorcycles.
- Hollywood Natives
- Indian Burial Ground: A construction crew desecrates one to build Dick Krantz's casino despite the local tribe's protests, awakening the titular monster which kills the crew employees. He eventually pays dearly for his attempt when the monster comes to kill him.
- Magical Native American: Chief Storm Cloud.
- Make Them Rot: The Bone Eater can turn living beings into dust just by touching them.
- Mighty Whitey: Downplayed with Sheriff Evans, who is 1/4th Native American and 3/4 Caucasian. However, being part Native still makes him fit to use the sacred axe to defeat the Bone Eater.
- The Natives Are Restless: Johnny Black Hawk wants to invoke this by attempting to control the Bone Eater and get revenge on the town.
- Nigh-Invulnerable: The titular monster is unaffected by bullets and can withstand the explosion of a dynamite stick a builder threw at it. The only thing that can kill the monster is the sacred bone axe that was buried with it.
- The Rival: Johnny Black Hawk is established as Sheriff Evans's rival and an actual Native American (despite being played by the Greek American Adoni Maropis) who seeks to use the Bone Eater to get revenge on the town.
- Total Eclipse of the Plot: The only way to defeat the Bone Eater is to stab the axe in its chest during a solar eclipse, where its powers weaken.
