The Night They Came Home (2024)

Charlie N. Townsend is Rufus Buck, part-Indian, part-African American and determined it’s time to strike out against whites for the atrocities of the past.

He gathers a gang of four young men and sets out on a trail of terror, vowing to raise a new army of Native Americans so fearsome they’ll drive settlers from the area.

They rape a white woman. They kill a lawman. They descend on the Palmer homestead and kill everyone but young Tommy, who happens to be away at the time, and pretty Jolene, who they take captive and plan to sell because a young white virgin might fetch a handsome price.

Veteran lawman Heck Thomas (Tim Abell) sets out on their trail, begrudgingly accepting the assistance of Native American policeman Paden Tolbert (Tommy Wolfe).

The Rufus Buck gang’s rampage continues. Nearly everyone in their path becomes a victim.

And their leader isn’t shy about having everyone know of his exploits. In fact, that’s part of the plan.

But Thomas is relentless in his pursuit of the killers. And when he finally catches up with the gang, he’s happy to have any assistance he can find, including Tolbert’s.

Charlie N. Townsend as Rufus Buck, leader of a gang of young ruffians terrorizing the countryside in The Night They Came Home (2024)

Tim Abell as Heck Thomas, wondering whether he needs a Native American policeman’s help in the journey ahead in The Night They Came Home (2024)

Review:

One of the film’s opening scenes is in a cheap saloon set. Fearing the West is no longer wild, an Easterner buys an old-timer a drink and asks for his opinion on the matter.

The old-timer turns out to be Danny Trejo as Digger, so named because he’s a grave digger. He’s going to tell this tale.

At which point viewers can be forgiven if they think, “Oh, no, this is going to be Z-grade, low-budget garbage.” Doubly so when Brian Austin Green, the other “big name” on the DVD cover, exists the proceedings about 15 minutes in.

But hang with this movie, and you’ll be pleasantly surprised. Charles N. Townsend is outstanding in the role of Rufus Buck. And this is a compelling tale loosely based on the true exploits of the Rufus Buck gang in Indian Territory (Arkansas and Oklahoma) in 1895.

Filmmakers are also pretty even handed in dealing with the root of the problem. Are the members of the Rufus Buck gang sympathetic characters, turned bad by brutality experienced in white man schools that forced them to turn their backs on their native customs?

Or are they young thugs, using that as an excuse to rape, maim and kill whites who had nothing to do with taking the land from the Indians, but merely moved onto land that was free for the taking?

Tommy Wolfe as Payden Tolbert, a Native American police officer helping track down the gang in The Night They Came Home (2024)

Peter Sherayko as hangman George Maledon, trying to assure Tommy his family’s killers will be brought to justice in The Night They Came Home (2024)

Directed by:
Paul G. Volk

Cast:
Charlie N. Townsend … Rufus Buck
Tim Abell … Heck Thomas
Brian Austin Green … Chuck Palmer
Kassius Marcil-Green .. Tommy Palmer
Kelsey Reinhardt … Jolene Palmer
Robert Carradine … Bart
Phillip Andre Botello … Lucky Davis
Nicholas Ryan Rising … Lewis Davis
Hugh McRae Jr. … Sam Sampson
Chase Alexander Stephens … Charles Buck
Ivan Villanueva … Maoma July
Peter Sherayko … George Maledon
Tommy Wolfe … Paden Tolbert
Jesse Kove … Wayfaring stranger
Carson Lee Bradshaw … Lady of the night
Jayd Swendseid … Peter Nocona
Anna Florence … Ellie Paterson
Patrick Durham … Spencer Paterson
Caroline Plyer … Rosetta Hassan
Michael Cervantes … Reporter Crosby
Michael Gaglio … Judge Isaac Parker
Sam Bearpaw … Sam Sixkiller
Leila Weisberg … Mary Sixkiller
Danny Trejo … Digger

Runtime: 105 min.

Phillip Andre Botello as Lucky Davis, finding a cashe of guns and booze the gang can turn into cash in The Night They Came Home (2024)

Nicholas Ryan Rising as Lewis Davis, thinking he’s outsmarted the lawmen by surrendering while his friends escape in The Night They Came Home (2024)

Memorable lines:

Rufus Buck: “Things look a whole lot more beautiful when you know it’s the last time you’re gonna see ’em.”

Master at a white man’s school, doling out a beating: “We will kill the Indian in you, Rufus Buck, to save the man.”

Tommy Parker: “Our preacher says eye for an eye is in the Bible.”
Chuck Parker: “Yeah, but an eye for an eye? If both men end up blind, what good is that?”

Lawmen Heck Thomas, when a medicine man offers the opinion that the gang will be caught because they’re stupid: “Stupid is the worst kind of dangerous. Especially now that they’ve got a taste of blood.”

Cpl. Paden Tolbert, of the gang members: “They’re not Indians. They’re half breeds. Make them crazy sometimes.”

Hugh McRae Jr. as Sam Sampson, wondering about the gang’s next move in The Night They Came Home (2024)

Chase Alexander Stephens as Charlie Buck, about to be talked into joining the gang in The Night They Came Home (2024)

Rufus Buck, to Spencer Patterson, after proposing his wife lay with the gang members to save her husband: “Now, y’all keep calling me crazy. But can’t you see I’m the one in control here? Or is you just too stupid to see that, farmer?”

Digger: “Only the grave remains undefeated. And it keeps me in business. But I’ve seen all their ghosts.”

Rufus Buck, to a dime novelist: “I hate all y’all for not allowing this world to be the way the Great Spirit intended it to be.”
Writer: “And how did he intend it to be?”
Rufus Buck: “A place where my daddy got to roam free. A place where my momma wasn’t in no chains. And a place where you sit your ass right back where you belong.”

Digger, of the fate facing the gang members: “Justice may be blind. But she’s a cold-ass bitch to the man in chains.”

Kelsey Reinhardt as Jolene Palmer, bidding farewell to her dad as he heads to town in The Night They Came Home (2024)

Kassius Marcil-Green as Tommy Palmer and Brian Austin Green as his dad Chuck, running into the Rufus Buck gang in The Night They Came Home (2024)

Anna Florence as Ellie Patterson, a woman who escapes a brush with the Rufus Buck gang in The Night They Came Home (2024)

Patrick Durham as Spencer Patterson, objecting to the proposal that gang members take turns with his wife in exchange for his life in The Night They Came Home (2024)

Jayd Swendseid as Peter Nocona, the medicine man who believes the seeds for the gang’s criminal rampage were planted in missionary schools in The Night They Came Home (2024)

Danny Trejo as Digger, so named because he digs graves, sharing his tale of the Rufus Buck gang in The Night They Came Home (2023)

Jesse Kove as the stranger, buying drinks for Digger so he’ll tell the story of the Rufus Buck gang in The Night They Came Home (2024)

Carson Lee Bradshaw as the saloon girl listening to Diggers’ story about the Rufus Buck gang in The Night They Came Home (2024)

Tim Abell as Heck Thomas, pointing in the direction he thinks the suspects took in The Night They Came Home (2024)

Charlie N. Townsend, ready to add another killing to his gang’s list of atrocities in The Night They Came Home (2024)