Numerous horror movies start with the premise of a dream weekend getaway that goes horribly awry. Think “Evil Dead,” “The Descent,” “Honeymoon,” “Old,” or even the all-encompassing subgenre send-up, “The Cabin in the Woods.” While Mercedes Bryce Morgan’s newest film, “Bone Lake,” doesn’t necessarily break new gory ground in the category, it’s a fun, messed-up horror thriller playing with both familiar tropes and modern-day anxieties of love, sex, and finding out that someone has booked the same rental home for the weekend.
Diego (Marco Pigossi) and Sage (Maddie Hasson) are on their way to a picturesque vacation at a place ominously known as Bone Lake. It’s their last shot at relaxation before Diego begins working on his book and Sage puts her own journalistic ambitions on hold so she can step up as the breadwinner. As they’re settling in for the weekend, another couple arrives, also confused. Instead of ruining their vacations, the pairs come to a compromise: how about they share the house?
At first, the overly friendly new roommates, Will (Alex Roe) and Cin (Andra Nechita), seem unafraid to ask personal questions. But soon their tone takes on a nefarious turn, tempting Diego and Sage to be dishonest with each other. Will their relationship survive temptation, or will Will and Cin’s other plans for them win out?
Morgan, whose previous films include the similarly twisted “Fixation” and “Spoonful of Sugar,” plays with her audience’s expectations as much as Will and Cin. She’s unafraid to shock with spurts of violence and gore, but restrains herself to use them only sparingly for maximum surprise. “Bone Lake” really starts with a jarring scene of a naked couple running for their lives, their relationship seemingly on rocky ground as one abandons the other in the chase. Some unknown entity is after them with a crossbow. They don’t make it, and their deaths are a series of painful ways to go. Morgan also uses the big lakeside manor as something of a funhouse, complete with locked mystery rooms featuring sex toys in one and a creepy, candlelit Ouija board in another, all to make Sage and Diego increasingly uneasy about their decision to stay with these strangers.
Written by Joshua Friedlander, “Bone Lake” dives quickly into the absurdity of its situation, offering both the pleasure of sex and the pain of violence in equal measure. The film builds suspense out of tiny, throwaway details, such as the lake getting its name from the skeletons found on its shores or private moments that the other couple somehow knows about, carefully building up the sense of unease that accumulates with every moment the foursome shares the home.
The brisk speed of “Bone Lake” wastes no moment of tension or possibility of further complicating the dynamics between the two couples, taking full advantage of each quiet moment to further twist the knife as both Will and Cin step up their efforts to seduce Sage and Diego. To complete Morgan’s vision of a horrific vacation from hell, cinematographer Nick Matthews conjures up a lurid neo-giallo color palette that’s delightfully eye-catching. Perhaps few cabins in the woods would be lit up like a neon-soaked house of horrors, but both Matthews and Morgan lean into that colorful visual style, playing up the strange, deadly circumstances Sage and Diego find themselves in.
While the movie’s conceit–of a couple trying to entrap another couple into cheating on each other–might have been quickly resolved if the visiting couple were in an open relationship, “Bone Lake” is still a fair bit of fun, rife with enough unexpected twists and weird tropes referencing other horror movies like “Mandy” and even “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” to treat horror fans. Visitors seek escapism, but instead find their relationships tested, their trust in each other damaged; yet, their survival depends on whether they can work together to escape.
In a sense, “Bone Lake” can be seen as a metaphor for any crisis that can tear a couple apart, whether it be temptation or a lack of communication, with a heaping helping of danger to add that horror movie flair.
