Buckskin (2021)

Robert Keith is Capt. Coleman, commander of the Southwest Fur Co. post at Fort Kingston, and he receives devastating news.

An expedition has been attacked by Indians. Seventeen men, including his son, were killed; all the pelts lost.

And one trapper, his grandson Levi (Blaze Freeman), is missing, perhaps still alive somewhere in the Buckskin Forest.

Unable to spare a large expedition to look for his son, Coleman wants trapper-turned-cook Wesley Porter (Tom Zembrod) to accept the mission.

The prize should he succeed: a $100 bounty.

But Porter has ventured into those woods before. And barely made it out alive.

His wife doesn’t want him to return. A fortune teller predicts a more dire outcome this time.

He goes anyway. He’s fond of Levi, who showed kindness to Porter’s late son.

And Porter knows what those woods can do to a man.

Tom Zembrod as Wesley Porter, listening to Capt. Coleman’s plea in Buckskin (2021)

Blaze Freeman as Levi Coleman, the missing grandson found in the Buckskin Forest in Buckskin (2021)

Review:

An odd little low-budget Western in which the woods Porter ventures into are supposedly as dangerous and the Indians who occupy those woods.

Problem is, the woods never seem all that eerie. The Indians seem much more deadly.

And while Zembrod turns in a decent performance in the lead role, the script has his dispensing some odd frontier advice.

Never take the same trail twice. Never kill an animal when you’re too deep in the woods, no matter how hungry you are. Huh?

Oh, and those Indians are deadly enough to pick off one of Porter’s companions with an arrow, completely undetected until it strikes.

But they turn around and hire two white men, offering them money to track down Porter.

You can do worse in the world of low-budget Westerns. But you can do a lot better too.

Robert Keith as Capt. Coleman, getting news of a massacre and a missing grandson in Buckskin (2021)

Corey Cannon as Henry Lawrence, delivering grim news to Capt. Coleman in Buckskin (2021)

Directed by:
Brent Bentman

Cast:
Tom Zembrod … Wesley Porter
Robert Keith … Capt. Coleman
Blaze Freeman … Levi Coleman
Corey Cannon … Henry Lawrence
Tiffany McDonald … Cora Porter
Billy Blair … Patrick Rigger
Jeremy Gauna … Keokuk
Eddie T. Gomez … Akira
Glovannie Cruz … The Fortune Teller
Andy Andersen … Ellis
Andy Arrasmith … Myles
Bob Stewart … Trapper

Runtime: 80 min.

Tiffany McDonald as Cora Porter, awaing her husbands return from the Buckskin Forest in Buckskin (2021)

Glovannie Cruz as The Fortune Teller who warns Wesley Porter against returning to the Buckskin Forest in Buckskin (2021)

Memorable lines:

Henry Lawrence: “The captaIn would like to speak with you.”
Porter: “I’ll have a word with my captain after I’m done having a word with my God.”
Henry Lawrence: “I’m afraid your God can wait.”

Porter: “I’ve survived those woods before.”
Fortune teller: “Death never makes the same mistake twice.”

Porter to Myles: “Step one to surviving the trail: Eat your meat without lookin’ at it first.”

Myles: “Our scars only remind us that the past was real.”

Porter: “This place is evil. These woods don’t care about pelts, furs or your heart. It wants your soul.”
Levi: “How do you know this?”
Porter: “Cause it tried to take mine.”

Tom Zembrod as Wesley Porter, barely surviving his first journey into the Buckskin Forest in Buckskin (2021)

Tom Zembrod as Wesley Porter and Blaze Freeman as Levi Coleman, reunited in the Buckskin Forest in Buckskin (2021)