Fans of the rough, gritty end of the American western will have a ball with The Thicket, a 2024 feature directed by Elliott Lester. It adapts the novel by noted author Joe R. Lansdale, and to my mind it adapts his tone and cadence remarkably well.

Siblings Jack (Levon Hawke) and Lula Parker (Esmé Creed-Miles) are orphaned by a smallpox outbreak. While en route with their grandfather to their new home, an altercation with notorious criminal Cut Throat Bill (Juliette Lewis) sees Grandpa murdered, Lula kidnapped, and Jack left for dead. While a terrified Lula travels with Bill, Jack hires bounty hunter Reginald Jones (Peter Dinklage) to help get her back.

The Thicket tells a cold, oftentimes unhappy story, and it is appropriately set in a wintry east Texas setting. It is a superb match of material with climate, and also sets the film apart from the more typical westerns – which usually adopt a more desert-like wilderness. It is also set a little later than is standard: there is a brief appearance of a motorbike (invented in 1885) as well as an early form of truck. These elements all add up: they make The Thicket feels both very traditional but also eerily unfamiliar.

There is a wider spread of characters to play that your standard chase for revenge. Reginald Jones is aided by his partner Eustace (Gbenga Akinnagbe), an ex-slave turned mercenary. They are joined in short course by Jimmy Sue (Leslie Grace), a trafficked sex worker who demonstrates an admirably independent spirit. Cut Throat Bill has her own gang of criminals. Tangential to the main plot, Reginald is being chased himself by bounty hunters: Simon Deasy (James Hetfield) and his brother Malachi (Macon Blair). I have always been a fan of Blair’s. Hetfield, much better known as lead singer of trash metal band Metallica, acquits himself remarkably well.

It is a large supporting cast, but one that interweaves smoothly and delivers an impressive amount of complexity for such a streamlined kind of a film. If it loses a little momentum in the process, it is honestly a fair trade. The characters are comparatively realistic, while remaining familiar archetypes. There is not a poor performance in the set, and more than a few excellent ones: Juliette Lewis continues to do outstanding work in this current, extremely watchable period of her career.

This is Elliott Lester’s first directorial feature in seven years, after the admirably developed but creatively unsuccessful Aftermath (2017). There is a world of difference between the two films. The Thicket is rich in atmosphere, intelligently developed, and confidently played. Guillermo Garza’s cinematography is striking with an tremendous visual clarity. Ray Suen’s musical score is wonderfully evocative.

It can be hard for a western to find a commercial market these days; the losses incurred by Kevin Costner’s Horizon are testament to that. The present and future of westerns are on streaming services and home video. In Australia it has just been released to blu-ray by independent distributor Umbrella Entertainment. Americans can watch it for free on Tubi, which co-funded its release. It deserves to find an audience. It deserves success.