Bone Lake
Bone Lake
While erotic thrillers seem to have lost their luster since their heyday in the ’80s, they are making a come back with films such as Bone Lake. Movies about erotic drama, or anything bordering on that sphere, ruled in the 80s and died down by the mid-90s when the absurdities of the genre were made light of in the 1993 film ‘Fatal Instinct.’ Dominated by the direct-to-video market and easy porn accessibility, the genre went almost extinct in the 2000s. However, it has been making a steady come back with films such as The Voyeurs, Deep Water, and now Bone Lake.’
Diego (Marco Pigossi) and Sage (Maddie Hasson) are a couple even though at the beginning of the film they’re having quite some issues. They decide to go away and book an AirBnb but it appears Diego struggles as a writer and has left his teaching job to work on an erotic novel while leaving all the financial responsibilities with Sage bringing a lot of strain in their sexual relationship. But when arriving there, they are greeted by Will (Alex Roe) and Cin (Andra Nechita), a couple who has also booked the place. Instead, Will’s more open-minded perspective and Sage’s sense of connection leads the couples to a solution – to share the accommodation. While they seem very friendly, Sage and Diego become more suspicious about the couple’s true intentions as they begin to plant discord in Diego and Sage’s relationship.
Morgan is not one to waste time and right from the beginning of the film, a shot of 2 nude dead bodies is presented to the audience which is immediately followed by another shot of a title card being stretched in a way that is apparently like an erection forming accompanied by “Sex and Violence” by The Exploited in the background. The film would have been plain slop without a certain sense of humor that’s relatively dry. Some of it can be a bit on the nose ( this writer isn’t oblivious to the irony of how Cin’s name is a homophone of ‘sin’ ), but Friedlander’s overwriting to suggest that there is more to this story than what one might expect, works in her favor. Call it campy if you must but Bone Lake plays with most of the conventions of its genre and elevates them to levels where even the crude humor in the movie becomes a strength rather than a weakness.
Morgan’s and Saw X shooter Nick Matthews’s ridiculous scenes of nude chess pieces and sausage stuffing after awkward nudity also are funny and add to the humor. Bone Lake is not excessively a stylish film but there are some interesting shots in the few scenes that utilize the restricted setting to the fullest.
The main fight of Bone Lake is to explore the communication issues between Diego and Sage, and while easy to mention (talk to your spouse!), there’s that spontaneous dynamic about their relationship that just makes it work, especially in the earlier more irritable scenes of them not talking to one another. Their relations with Will and Cin are distinctly comic, in a Sense of humor similar to Speak No Evil and its dealing with society and social etiquette. Nonetheless, it must be considered that it has more relation to the recent American remake than the Danish original one since it chose to be an entertaining and loud film instead of the malicious one.
All four of the leads do well, but it is Roe and Nechita who seem to be enjoying themselves the most in exploring Will and Cin’s duality. They are both able to fully embrace the dark humour and horror of their characters and although Pigossi and Hasson are given the less glamorous parts, you will cheer for them. Hasson, after making such an impact with minimal screen time in James Wan’s picture Malignant, shines in this as well.
The plot twists and reveals were inevitable, but Friedlander as usual keeps some card close to his chest as the turns are equally spaced throughout the second half making the film seem fast paced until the real agenda of Will and Cin’s plans are revealed. All this leads to what sits on top of Bone Lake‘s piece de resistance: the concluding scenes that are bloody and gory and are in fact the stuff good films are made of. Violence comes in the drawn out third act which lifts and lifts and leads to the amazing last frame. Some more standard horror elements appear in this segment, but the movie is a riot so it is very difficult to hold it against it.
What’s easier to hold against it is its particularization as an erotic thriller. Bone Lake is touted as returning to the genre’s golden era. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it doesn’t completely embrace the characteristics that made those movies so dreadful. Bone Lake, however, is far from degeneracy or trash, and though there a few scenes that can be termed as erotic, the lines are the more enticing than the actual portrayals in the film. There is very little nudity as well as the key actors’ private parts are concealed by props. This sometimes works, as in one of the early scenes when Diego and Sage’s pelvises are out of view, but then, like the film, it’s more stimulating than erotic. Para: When a ‘bear’ skin rug is placed over a person’s pelvic area, Diego and Sage’s private areas are blocked. No, but more like, he just, it, allude to an erotic state rather than actually being one. Yes. Most certainly. Erotic, with a wry smile. For starters.
Bone Lake, however, is one of the greatest shocks of Fantastic Fest as it is one of the most intense thrillers without being too scary or serious. Since the beginning of the film, it has been a complete bomb.
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- Genre: horror, Mystery, Thriller
- Country: United States
- Director: Mercedes Bryce Morgan
- Cast: Maddie Hasson, Alex Roe, Marco Pigossi
