Grafik violence - with subtlety

Rating: 3/10 (16 November 2008)

My mother came in while I was watching this movie and she said for shame I ought to turn it off right away. Which of course I didn't.
Later I explained to her that it wasn't all violent. No sir, not by a long shot (if you'll pardon the expression). I mean you had this scary looking fellow going round killing people with a cattle bolt gun (or a shotgun, depending on his mood at the time). Every occasion you saw that thing with its long shiny cylinder you knew someone was going to get their chips and end up with their ass a lot further underground than when they started. I have to admit I was beginning to wonder if there would be anyone left alive in the State of Texas if they didn't catch him pretty damn quick.
But in between the killings there were these downright interesting conversations where they talked about the way things were and the way they are now and how things went from father to son and stuff like that. Must admit I've forgotten some of it now but it had my full attention at the time.
If the movie had a slight flaw it was that you didn't see the moment when Carla Jean got hers. I mean you'd spent the better part of two hours witnessing what that old bolt gun could do both to the human flesh and even to more than a few doors (and some of those looked pretty solid to my eye). And while the scary fellow was sitting there tossing that coin and trying to make her call I couldn't help wondering when he was going to get that thing out and start making a few holes in her. I even went through all the extra stuff on the DVD (though by this time my mother was hollering for me to come down to supper - she's been trying to get me to find a place of my own ever since I turned forty) to see if I could find it, but it looks like they cut it out for some reason.
Well, I guess that's about it - have to get on down to the drugstore to buy a few more shells for my pump-action Beretta shotgun. I like to keep it under my bed in case my mother turns bad on me.