This sub-standard thriller copies much of the style and substance of SEVEN in such a dull, unoriginal way that you'll be hard pressed to bother sitting through it after the first hour. Yet another example of the straight-to-video trash which fills out the shelves of Blockbuster these days, this is a lethargic, silly thriller with only a handful of good scenes to make it worthwhile. Despite having some nice chilly locales, BONE DADDY fails to build up any kind of worthwhile atmosphere due to a clichéd plot and disinterested performances from the leads.Rutger Hauer has been in some good films in the past, so it's sad to see him whiling away his weeks in colourless fodder like this. Hauer's detached performance fits in nicely with the coldly clinical feel to the film, half bought on by the medical action on screen, and half due to the certain feeling that the makers of this film were in it only for the money. Hauer has definitely been ageing of late and it's sad to see him walk around and do little, wasted again in a pointless role. The rest of the cast are awful; especially the talentless female lead who offers up absolutely NO sympathy.Mystery fans would be wise to avoid this film, as despite having a few whodunit elements, the premise is flawed as the killer turns out to be somebody who has been in the film for one scene only. Feel cheated? You should do. There's an appalling lack of characterisation meaning that the cast blur into one and you're never really sure of who the actors and actresses are meant to be and what relation they bear to the plot. I'm not sure if this was cut for television, but there is virtually no gore rendering the "disturbing" warning at the beginning of the film pointless. We get to see a few bloody cadavers and some meaty bones but that's about it. Another thing, only one person falls victim to the killer in this film. Talk about rationing, this is ridiculous! I liked a couple of the more outlandish moments: Hauer running through a morgue, pulling out all the corpses and checking them to see if the stitches match with the murder victim; plus the fun scenes which have bones being discovered in brightly-coloured parcels. Otherwise, this is a strictly middling affair: not bad enough to make you cry, just enough to make you think "why?" instead. The premise in itself isn't particularly bad, and I'm sure a good film could have been made of it. Pass it over unless you're stuck for something to watch.

BONE DADDY came after SILENCE OF THE LAMBS and SEVEN and before THE BONE COLLECTOR, but manages to echo all of those films. This STV is clearly a Rutger Hauer vehicle, with a mustachioed Hauer playing a retired Chicago ME whose best-selling book about a particularly brutal serial killer apparently has stirred the killer to return from the ashes and start all over again. Slow-moving a lot of the time, BONE DADDY at least delivers the goods when it comes to gore. So much so that I would advise those squeamish about morgue scenes and mutilated bodies and sharp instruments like scalpels to steer clear. The killer's identity is not hard to guess, and in fact parallels the identity of the killer in THE BONE COLLECTOR. For those who have seen the latter, you'll understand my meaning. In the end, BONE DADDY is not recommended. The title is far more clever than the flick, which teeters on the deadly dull side most of the time.

This non chilling quasi-horror with a plot weak as bones attacked by severe osteoporosis would not be worth more than 3 stars out of 10 :-( I wouldn't have watched it but it was shown on TV after midnight so I was expecting something better....

This formulaic, but occasionally diverting, thriller starring Rutger Hauer revolves around a serial killer who removes bones from his victims while they are still alive. He stops his killings and disappears. Years later Rutger Hauer's character, who headed the investigation against the killer, has since written a fictional novel in which the killer is actually caught. This sparks off more murders. Is it the killer returned or a copycat? That is what Rutger must find out.There is nothing really new but it is all professionally done for a B-Movie. The main twist is a surprise but is one of those twists that seem unfair to the audience. We have a secondary character, who is featured in the film for merely a few minutes, who turns out to be the killer. These thrillers work best when you get a character which you get information about, who has some impact on the plot, so that you can draw up your own conclusions as to whether he or she did it or not. In a who done it such as this you need to be given clues not have the killer pulled from literally nowhere, its unfair on the audience and gives them little chance of guessing who the killer is. What this does do well though is lead you up blind alleys where you suspect different people but they are not the culprits. The filmmakers do this well rather than some thrillers that will have a character acting very shiftily indeed to really ham up the possibility they may have done it.Anyway, this is by no means very good but is certainly worth a rental. The acting is good and despite a rather lackadaisical ending it is never boring. 5.5/10