Bone Lake – Film Review
Reviewed by Harris Dang on the 3rd of October 2025
Umbrella Entertainment presents a film by Mercedes Bryce Morgan
Written by Joshua Friedlander
Produced by Mickey Liddell, Pete Shilaimon, Jacob Yakob, Joshua Friedlander, and Jason Blumenfeld
Starring Maddie Hasson, Alex Roe, Andra Nechita, and Marco Pigossi
Cinematography Nick Matthews
Edited by Anjoum Agrama
Rating: TBA
Running Time: 94 minutes
Release Date: the 4th of October 2025
Bone Lake tells the story of intrepid couple named Sage (Maddie Hasson) and Diego (Marco Pigossi). She is an aspiring journalist turned editor, and he is an aspiring writer turned community college professor. They undertake a romantic vacation trip to an isolated lakeside estate. The booking is next to the titular location, which is not a euphemism.
Before many sessions in vertical and horizontal refreshment (with a toted clothing-optional policy), things turn peculiar. Due to a booking error, another pair of romantics arrive. They are Will (Alex Roe) and Cin (Andra Nechita).
Seeing no way out of the sticky situation without being dicks, the people decide to brush up together and make the most out of their circumstances for the weekend by staying. Like anything that brushes up, their stay causes tension. Sage and Diego verge on a downward spiral filled with lies, deception, and delusion. It tests both their relationship and survival instincts.
Bone Lake is the latest film from Mercedes Bryce Morgan, a talented horror filmmaker who has gained notice for her works Fixation (2022) and Spoonful of Sugar (2022). Diving into themes of obsession, gaslighting, and abuse of power with an assured visual style and oblique humour, her directorial chops mean Bone Lake’s premise (scripted by Joshua Friedlander) is a potential winner.
From its thrilling, darkly funny opening sequence, Morgan makes Bone Lake’s tone perfectly clear. A nude couple runs in the woods and is chased by unseen captors using crossbows (in what could be a hilarious riff of The Most Dangerous Game, 1932). The outrageously graphic imagery will surely startle people into laughter, meaning Morgan and her crew have people by the balls.
Morgan adds to the fun by showing cinematic reverence to classic films. There is an opening shot involving a god’s eye view of our intrepid couple driving to the mansion that riffs off Funny Games (1997). Later, a haunting shot set underwater owes a debt to The Night of the Hunter (1955). There are other references that could be plot spoilers but most importantly, Morgan and Friedlander balance tone and frivolity in entertaining ways.
It helps Morgan’s visual style (aided by DOP regular Nick Matthews, composers Roque Banos and Ben Cherney, and regular editor Anjoum Agrama) leads to strikingly stylish images (including a POV shot of a door lock being hit open) and an assured control of pacing. The cross-cutting between Will and Cin making their advances on Sage and Diego proves engaging as the tension escalates.
Morgan and Friedlander succeed in depicting mind games from which our two couples enact, participate, and retreat. The build-up from general politeness, understated innuendo, passive-aggressiveness, emotional manipulation, and finally blatant flirtation, amounts to a suspenseful, acutely funny, and insightful experience. It is an examination and subversion of gender politics/relationship hypocrisies and boundaries of general politeness (men with their fragile egos and women with their put-upon duties of providing).
Morgan and Friedlander know the difference between being prurient and sophomoric when depicting sexuality. Much like the build-up to the gripping climax, the climactic confrontation delivers thematically and cinematically, leading to true-to-life epiphanies and grand gestures that result in plenty of bloodletting and grievous bodily harm that will excite horror fans.
In some scenes, the thematic approach jarringly collides with its genre aspirations. Most notable is a scene involving provocation between characters over the testament of love that will irk some due to questionable character decisions and predictability. However, the bridge between the two genres is established so a good balance of horror and comedy is effectively achieved.
A huge credit must be given to the cast, as they make their flawed characters empathetic, enjoyably frivolous, and engaging in their vulnerability. Meanwhile, the film also concludes with a riotous final shot that recalls a ‘60s American classic and you have yourself a winner. Bone Lake is an extremely entertaining, mischievous, and cheekily blood-soaked ride into the psychological warfare couples have while in a relationship. It just so happens to be a grisly horror comedy! Highly recommended.
Summary: An extremely entertaining, mischievous, and cheekily blood-soaked ride into the psychological warfare of couples. It just so happens to be a grisly horror comedy!
5
Amazing
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