Fantastic Fest 2024: ‘Bone Lake,’ a seductive, gripping thriller

Salacious and seductive, Mercedes Bryce Morgan’s Bone Lake certainly lives up to its provocative name. Screening at this year’s Fantastic Fest, the horror/thriller features plenty of horniness and tantalizing bloodlust worthy of Netflix’s You. With its familiar storyline, you might head into the film with a set of expectations about what will happen, but writer Joshua Friedlander fuels his script with enough camp to shoot adrenaline straight into the veins. The fun lies in how the characters, unassuming at first, realize what’s happening and choose to fight for survival.

When couple Diego (Marco Pigossi) and Sage (Maddie Hasson) arrive at a lavish countryside estate for the weekend, they learn that another couple Will (Alex Roe) and Cin (Andra Nechita) have also booked the Airbnb. Setting a standard that if things get “too weird” they’ll bolt, Diego and Sage begrudgingly agree to share the house. Will and Cin are a disarming, perfectly gorgeous couple with bubbly, charming personalities. You’d never expect them to have ill intentions. Once settled into their rooms, the group tosses back a few drinks and pokes around the house’s vast rooms. Three locked rooms, in particular, catch their attention – and wouldn’t you know, Will knows how to break into the first two, in which they discover sex toys and an Ouija board.

With the first of many red flags, Will and Cin slowly unravel their plot of deception and desire. It’s easy to get Diego and Sage separated and plant tiny seeds of doubt. Secrets are exposed, and suspicions are aroused (in more ways than one). As their victims begin to mistrust one another, Cin and Will attempt to seduce them with their bodies and further break the ties that bind them. While Sage and Diego struggle in their relationship behind closed doors, they’re not about to give up on everything they’ve built together.

As events unfold, Will and Cin’s schemes don’t seem to be doing the trick as they hoped. Things quickly escalate into the third act in a spray of blood and guts. Sage and Diego prove they’re fighters and will do whatever it takes to remain alive and deeply in love. After all, if they can’t handle each other at their absolute worst, what gives them the right to enjoy their absolute best? How they handle the confrontations speaks to their survival instincts aptly covered with push-over qualities. When things begin to go sideways, Sage and Diego give into Will and Cin’s obvious ruses to keep the peace. They don’t want to ruffle any feathers (think: Speak No Evil but sexy) and keep their real feelings close to the vest. But when things erupt, they’re not to be messed with.

Bone Lake burns like hot candle wax. The creative team unfurls the story in calculated increments, tinkering with thriller and horror elements in immaculate amounts. It might require a bit of patience for some, but the murderous payoff is more than worth it. It’s stimulating, sensual, and sweet. While Morgan could have pushed the envelope in showing even more skin, Bone Lake awakens the senses like its title promises. A mixture of Lifetime and Skinamax, the film is guaranteed to get the blood pumping.

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