Bone Lake

No Bone Unturned

Bone Lake
Directed by Mercedes Bryce Morgan
USA 2025
Door Number 3 Films
Screened at FrightFest Sunday 24th August 2025

Bone Lake upped the expectations right from the outset, as my fifth film of this year’s FrightFest, with it being introduced as a sexy, bloody thriller and also being preceded by a recorded introduction by the director, Mercedes Bryce Morgan, pretty much saying the same thing and pushing the sexually charged violence vibe in a way which really increased expectations of the movie we were all about to watch. And, said film did, indeed, at least reach half of those pay offs, for sure. I found something a little off in terms of those assumptions about the content of the movie as opposed to what’s actually there but, it didn’t stop me really enjoying this one and... yeah.. I’ll get to that other stuff in a minute.

Okay, the plot is simple. A struggling writer, Diego, played by Marco Pigossi and his girlfriend and bread winner Sage, played by Maddie Hasson, book a beautiful mansion in a remote area called Bone Lake, named after something that happened there many years ago... for a sexy vacation (as the Americans put it, us Brits just call it a holiday). However, it’s not very long before another couple, Will (played by Alex Roe) and Cin (played by Andra Nechita), also show up as they’ve apparently also been allowed to book that property for the weekend. So the two couples decide to share and get to know each other and... yeah, all the red flags are there from the start and, okay, I’ll admit it’s a little clichéd in its set up, I’m sure I’ve seen that story done before many times, for sure.

There are secret rooms, attempted seductions and psychological game playing all on the table and, of course, once deceptions are uncovered, lots of blood and violence (for the last 20 minutes or so). The audience, who cheered and whooped at the end, had a good time with it... make no mistake, this one’s a real crowd pleaser... and so did I. It wasn’t my favourite of this year’s FrightFest films but it was well put together by a director who obviously knows what she is doing, it looked nice and there were some genuinely intense and suspenseful scenes throughout. 

That being said, I was very disappointed by the sex angle here, especially for a film which even needle drops a song chanting ‘sex and violence’ at one point. The movie opened very strongly indeed with a naked couple played by Eliane Reis and Clayton Spencer running through the forest and being hunted by someone with a bow and arrow (or possibly a crossbow). This included the much touted genital mutilation (as an arrow penetrates through both testicles of the naked guy) and plenty of gratuitous nudity. So much so that, even after that set up is revealed as something else entirely, I was confident we were going to be in for a sexual, bloody odyssey of bizarre deviance. Alas, that wasn’t quite the case.

Now, maybe it’s my disappointed ‘male gaze’ talking here but, after this I found the sexual content of the movie to be a huge let down. In short, there’s no other real nudity in the film (from any of the four main actors) other than implied or partially obscured nudity and, I wouldn’t have minded that at all except the film seems to be crying out for it with that specific kind of intention as the goal. Especially after that wonderful opening set up, which reminded me of The Most Dangerous Game channeled through Jess Franco’s Countess Perverse remake of the same material. 

So, yeah, on the sexual front I was a little disappointed. Especially after two ‘locked rooms’ are broken into in order to reveal a somewhat tame sex playroom (it’s not quite cool enough to be called a sex dungeon) and a room with a Ouija board set up in it. It just sets up expectations that some of this equipment will get used in the course of the film and.. it just doesn’t (neither the sex toys or the Ouija board... I’m not sure why that was there at all, to be honest). 

The film’s twists are mainly telegraphed but, honestly, chasteness aside, Bone Lake is a quite enjoyable and intense feature and the four lead actors do an absolutely great job here. The chemistry between all of them is absolutely amazing and this could have gone on for another hour and I wouldn’t have gotten bored of it at all (and maybe that would have given me time to get over the lack of sexuality on display). So, yeah, as a kind of modern American giallo, Bone Lake gives a good account of itself and I hope this one gets a proper cinema release here in the UK. Time will tell, I guess.