Bone Lake takes a page from Speak No Evil in the horror subgenre of “are we supposed to trust these people?”, but with a decidedly hornier tone. And while the brilliantly cruel Danish thriller (and its decent American remake) explored weaponized politeness and the dangers of not speaking up, this clever, sexy thriller focuses on the breakdown of trust that often occurs deep into a romantic relationship … and the dangers of not speaking up.
This isn’t to say that Bone Lake is unoriginal, just that it takes a tried-and-true format and applies it to a relatable thematic concern. After a gory and darkly comical cold open, we meet Diego (Marco Pigossi) and Sage (Maddie Hasson), a wannabe novelist and his breadwinner wife. Before embarking on a new chapter in their life, the happy couple has decided to take a vacation at a rental home on the titular lake. It’s a gorgeous estate, perfect for an unbothered weekend of food, booze, and minimal clothing. But before their romance and hedonism can get started, an all too common hiccup occurs: the property has been double booked to another young couple (Andra Nechita & Alex Roe). No one can get the owner on the phone, so the foursome decides on a compromise: the house is big enough for the four of them, and if things get uncomfortable, they’ll rock/paper/scissors for the right to stay. Refunds are all but guaranteed anyway.
The two couples get along at first, but as these things go, Sage and Diego find themselves increasingly at odds, perhaps due to the machinations of their new friends …
Bone Lake is a purposefully frustrating experience that capitalizes on dramatic irony to ratchet up the tension. What starts as a a simple reworking of an oft-repeated general premise soon reveals itself to be much more clever than my initial impressions had me believe. I feared is was in for a half-decent streaming programmer, but by the time the film reaches its manic third act I was squirming and cheering in equal measure. This one belongs on the big screen, hopefully with an engaged crowd.
The spell the film casts is due largely to the realistic and committed performances from the four leads. As their motivations and allegiances shift (and as the script cleverly moves in and out of scenes with juuuuust enough ambiguity to keep things mysterious), each player is tasked with reaching emotional and physical extremes, often wildly fluctuating between them in a single scene. The actors are having fun, so we’re having fun.
There are times when the film hits some predictable notes, which can negatively affect the overall pacing, but for each of these there is also a moment of legitimately compelling mystery (or delicious cruelty) to keep the viewer engaged. We immediately know who not to trust, we just don’t always know if the people we do trust can actually be trusted. Budgetary concerns too will occasionally dampen the film’s look — one particular moment of technical wizardry doesn’t quite sell the effect, but director Mercedes Bryce Morgan employs enough in-camera artistic flourishes to give even the quieter moments a level of visual life that matches both the unrelenting tension and eventual circus-like chaos of the story at large.
We film critics are often tasked with watching movies like Bone Lake alone and at home, when that’s simply not the right venue for such a thing. With this in mind, perhaps the best review I can offer is this: I fully plan to purchase a ticket to this one so that I can watch the movie the correct way, and more importantly, I can watch the crowd for their reactions.
Directed by Mercedes Bryce Morgan
Written by Joshua Friedlander
Starring Maddie Hasson, Alex Roe, Marco Pigossi, Andra Nechita
Rated R, 94 minutes
