Mohawk

I had wanted to see Mohawk for some time, mostly because I was a huge fan of Ted Geoghegan’s first movie We Are Still Here. About the time I was originally going to watch it Jon Huber ended up passing away and I knew that I wouldn’t be able to properly watch it without crying. I was finally able to watch it and I thought that it would pair well with Prey based on what I knew about it. I do think they compliment each other since they both focus on Native American women kicking a lot of ass, even if there’s five years between them.

I was surprised to see that Grady Hendrix co-wrote Mohawk with Ted Geoghegan. I had seen Geoghegan’s name in the thanks for Hendrix’s book The Final Girl Support Group but didn’t think about it much. I think the care taken to portray the Mohawk people is shown with how the characters talk about them. It also shows in the story that’s told and even how it focuses on the lead character’s relationship with other characters.

Kaniehtiio Horn, Eamon Farren, Justin Rain, Noah Segan, Jon Huber, and Robert Longstreet star in Mohawk. I’ve seen Horn in several other things before, but I wasn’t sure if it was her or not. The makeup plus her limited lines kept me from being completely sure but it did keep me totally enthralled by her performance. Buzzington did a fantastic job of humanizing his monstrous character. Both Rain and Farren are fantastic in their support of Horn. I also really want to mention the chemistry between Huber and Segan. I wish they could have been in a comedy together with how fun they were together on screen.

The effects in Mohawk are really good. I’m going to focus on the practical effects because what little I did notice were still quite good. The effects that had to do with body parts were all incredibly gnarly and so much so that I audibly gasped and winced whenever they happened. The costume designer did an amazing job with the period costumes. The score by Wojciech Golczewski is simply amazing. It hits all the right emotional cues but I also want to mention the piece that plays during the climax and how intense it is.

Mohawk is a really interesting action horror movie that will get you with a gut punch. I don’t think I like this more than Geoghegan’s first movie, but I still really liked it. I don’t know how many people have seen it but I will say that not enough people talk about it. I hope both Mohawk and Prey lead to fans of each discovering the other. You can stream Mohawk on Shudder. I give Mohawk 9 sets of bone armor out of 10.