The Rap Mogul Stars as Police Chief Carter Opposite Gibson’s FBI Profiler in Asif Akbar’s Tense Thriller – Based on the Unsolved West Mesa Murders, It’s a Chilling Dive into Corruption and the Unseen Killer

50 Cent is trading his microphone for a badge in the dark, hard-hitting crime thriller Boneyard, starring opposite Mel Gibson in a story inspired by the disturbing real-life West Mesa murders – a case that still haunts Albuquerque, New Mexico, with a serial killer potentially at large. Released in select theaters on June 5, 2024, and now streaming on VOD platforms like Lionsgate Play and Prime Video, the film marks 50 Cent’s (Curtis Jackson) most dramatic pivot yet, playing Police Chief Carter, a no-nonsense leader grappling with departmental corruption while hunting a sadistic killer dubbed “The Bone Collector.” Directed by Asif Akbar (The Commando), Boneyard is a taut, 97-minute descent into the shadows of law enforcement, where personal vendettas and buried secrets threaten to unravel the investigation. With Gibson as the brooding FBI profiler Agent Petrovick, the film blends procedural grit with psychological tension, earning a solid 4.1/10 on IMDb from 5.8k ratings and praise for its unflinching look at unsolved evil.

The plot kicks off with a gruesome discovery: the skeletal remains of 11 women and an unborn child unearthed in shallow graves on Albuquerque’s West Mesa, a desolate stretch of desert that’s a dumping ground for the city’s underbelly. Chief Carter (50 Cent), a street-smart cop with a chip on his shoulder from losing his own daughter to violence, assembles a multi-agency task force to identify the victims and catch the killer. Enter Agent Petrovick (Gibson), a jaded FBI profiler haunted by his past, who insists on calling everyone “Pete” and brings a cynical edge to the hunt. Teamed with Detective Ortega (Brian Van Holt, S.W.A.T.) and Detective Young (Nora Zehetner, Agent Carter), the group uncovers a tangled web of intrigue: a rogue ex-undercover cop (Michael Sirow, The Cleaning Lady) with ties to the crimes, departmental leaks, and a killer who poses the victims like macabre artworks.

Akbar, a Bangladesh-American filmmaker known for low-budget indies like Skeletons in the Closet, infuses Boneyard with a gritty, handheld style that evokes early Se7en, switching to sepia tones and black-and-white for flashbacks that blur the line between memory and madness. The script, co-written by Akbar, Hank Byrd, and Vincent E. McDaniel, stays true to the West Mesa case’s eerie facts: the bodies, discovered in 2009, were dumped over a decade, victims mostly sex workers, with the killer’s identity still unknown despite DNA leads. “It’s a story that demands to be told – the forgotten women, the system’s failures,” Akbar told MovieWeb upon release. The production, a Lionsgate release with a $10 million budget, was filmed in Albuquerque’s stark deserts, capturing the Southwest’s isolation where evil thrives unchecked.

50 Cent’s Chief Carter is a standout – a commanding presence with a rapper’s swagger masking profound grief, his limited screen time (around 20 minutes) stealing the show with lines like “This ain’t a game – it’s a graveyard.” Gibson’s Petrovick, bearded and world-weary, narrates with philosophical heft: “The Bible says rejoice in suffering – but some scars don’t heal.” Van Holt’s Ortega adds blue-collar grit, while Zehetner’s Young brings empathy to the forensics. Supporting turns from Weston Cage Coppola, Gabrielle Haugh, and Spice Williams-Crosby flesh out the ensemble, though some reviews note the script’s meandering subplots dilute the tension.

Critics are mixed but intrigued. Chicago Sun-Times praised it as “a cut above B-movies, with Gibson and 50 Cent elevating the pulp,” while Variety lamented “clunky pacing and limited star power,” giving it 2/5 stars. On IMDb, it’s 4.1/10 from 5.8k ratings, with fans calling it “a solid true-crime vibe” and detractors decrying “soap opera acting.” Released July 5 in limited theaters and VOD on July 2, Boneyard has found a cult following for its unflinching nod to the unsolved horror.

Boneyard isn’t groundbreaking, but in a sea of forgettable thrillers, it digs where it hurts. As Petrovick says, “The killer’s still out there – waiting.” Stream now on Lionsgate Play. The hunt continues