Butcher Boys
Butcher Boys is a 2012 American horror cannibal film written and produced by Kim Henkel, co-creator of 1974's The Texas Chain Saw Massacre with Tobe Hooper, and directed by Duane Graves and Justin Meeks under its original title "Boneboys". It was picked up by Phase 4 Films shortly after its world premiere at the 2012 Fantasia International Film Festival, and later made its US premiere at the 2012 Austin Film Festival. Phase 4 Films released the movie in theaters on September 6, 2013, under the tagline "You Are What You Eat." PopHorror recently named it one  of their "Top 10 Cannibal Themed Horror Movies of the 21st Century." Plot. A group of Texas youths are celebrating a birthday at a posh San Antonio restaurant when they cross paths with a ravenous clan of cannibals called the Boneboys. Mercilessly stalked through the darkened streets of the city, the young revelers must fight back against their attackers with sheer ferocity in order to avoid having their bodies defiled, and their flesh devoured. "Butcher Boys" is described as an updating of Jonathan Swift’s 1729 satirical essay A Modest Proposal, which suggested poor people sell their children to the  rich as food. Writer Kim Henkel imagined the descendants of folks who actually took Swift up on his proposal. Production. Kim Henkel originally wrote "Butcher Boys" in 2008 as a modern sequel to his original 1974 The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, but later re-wrote it as a standalone film, which is why it is often referred to as a "spiritual sequel" to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. "...a cannibal film, loosely adapted from Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal, in rural Texas? Hard not to see the connection," wrote Richard Whittaker of The Austin Chronicle. Production took place in  both Austin and San Antonio. It was directed and edited by two of Henkel's previous film students, Duane Graves and Justin Meeks, whom he had collaborated with in 2009 on the Bigfoot horror feature The Wild Man of the Navidad. Reception. Reviews of the movie were polarized. Bloody Disgusting described it as "tainted meat you've tasted before." Evan Saathoff of Birth. Movies. Death. described it as "a strange, misguided film." ComingSoon.net explained "this is one of those films that will split people right down the middle. It may have nothing to offer some and others my find its  madness exhilarating. The performances are certainly unhinged and played to perfection." Joel Harley of "Horror DNA" wrote "it's brutal, gory and disarmingly amusing, "Butcher Boys" is a fun film by The Texas Chain Saw Massacre’s less remembered co-creator and two exciting new directors." DVD Exotica proclaimed ""Butcher Boys" is not an official TCM movie in name. But it is absolutely, 100% the next chapter in the story." While Outlaw Vern concluded, "it’s worth completist viewing for "Chainsaw" series fanatics like myself."