Creature Features as a subgenre of horror tend to be in direct response to the cultural anxieties of the people that create them. The most obvious example, of course, is Godzilla.
For its part, The Burrowers is a horror-western set against the backdrop of the American frontier in Written and directed by J. Petty and starring Clancy Brown , William Mapother , Laura Leighton , Karl Geary , and Alexandra Edmo, The Burrowers is an exploration of the evils of settler-colonialism and white supremacy through its protagonists' search for missing settlers.
The Burrowers follows Irish immigrant Fergus Coffey Geary as he searches for his lover's missing family in the wake of a mysterious violent attack. Assuming this violence was committed by Native Americans , he helps gather a search party of locals and military presence to find the missing family members. But just as quick as they gathered, these searchers part ways.
Henry Victor Doug Hutchison , the cavalry officer in charge of the military aspect of the search party, tortures an innocent Sioux tribe member they captured for information so violently that Coffey and his men separate from the military escort in disgust. Though Coffey and his men are disgusted by the outright torture they witness, they themselves are not much better when it comes to their beliefs about Indigenous people.
The main motivator for trying to find the missing settlers, other than simply locating them, is the belief that the missing women have been abducted by Native Americans who, if not stopped, will rape them.
