I definitely saw the Skinemax version of this film in 2004. For this one though, expectations matter. If you keep them low, Bone Lake has a chance to rise up, real hard on you. But go in hyped, and you’ll get some performance anxiety, and shrivel into your chair. Penis. I’m making a penis joke y’all.
Sage (Maddie Hasson) and Diego (Marco Pigossi) are on their way to their secluded lakeside mansion for the weekend, for a little couple time before big life changes ahead. After getting off to a hot start, the couple get frazzled when the door opens, and Will (Alex Roe) and Cin (Andra Nechita) walk in. Double booking the mansion for the weekend and nowhere closeby to stay, the couples agree to a tentative partnership, taking different parts of the house. But come on, it’s Bone Lake! And Cin is short for Cinnamon!!
Credit the film for knowing what it is. We keep a small cast, and plates in the air for 90ish minutes. A little character building here, a little T&A there, throw some hardcore horror violence in, and baby you’ve got a stew goin. Joshua Friedlander’s script does a decent job mixing things up, with little reveals and different character pairings, using all the rooms in that giant house. And when you write yourself into a corner? Take off a bra, or bring out an axe! Simple formula, with fun, occasionally over the top silly batsh*t results, though the movie thinks it’s more clever than it actually is.
Bone Lake is banking on Maddie Hasson, Marco Pigossi, Alex Roe, and Andra Nechita ready to rise to the occasion and not act like stiffs…until told to. They’re mostly pretty good, playing 4 types of people. Hasson is probably the best here, playing a pretty interesting version of a modern woman/straight man while chaos happens around here. Marco Pigossi plays her opposite as the modern man, more emotionally fragile than Sage going through his own problems too. Alex Roe and Andra Nechita get the really fun parts as the devil on Sage/Diego’s shoulders. Both launch charm offensives with insane sex appeal, leaning into the silliness of the situation with aplomb.
While I liked Bone Lake, I would have preferred a little more bone. And a lot more lake to be honest. With that big lake near the big house, I thought we’d get more fun sequences out there, claustrophobic on a boat. Wow I got old, demanding more lake time in a movie called Bone Lake. AARP here I come!