The Burrowers (2008)

The Burrowers  is about people in the great plains after the civil war who start getting attacked by an unknown force that turns out to be burrowing monsters. This film is a realistic unromantic look at the west (do not think John Wayne here) and combines it perfectly with the horror genre. The film has a similar feel to Dawn of the Dead (the 2005 remake) or Night of the Living Dead, and it is also a warning of what can happen when mankind messes with the environment and changes it irreparably The film largely uses makeup and traditional special effects for the monsters (a la Del Toro style). I give it a 4/5. The film has a feature article written about it in Rue Morgue(great Horror magazine based in Canada)'s 200 Alternative Horror Films You Need to See book and movie list.

The Rue morgue list is available here, though without the book's articles or interviews. The list is over 200 because of smaller top ten lists of subgenres of horror (i.e. family horror, foreign zombie movies, etc.) that are not included                                      as part of the main 200.