Bone Lake

Genre labels are an interesting concept. Really, they're just marketing terminology, a shorthand way to put a category on a movie so it can be sold appropriately. But they can be incredibly misleading. Arsenic & Old Lace is a comedy; so are Monty Python's Meaning Of Life and Porky's. Does it really make sense that these movies live under the same umbrella, when their styles are so wildly different? Flip it around and talk about what "defines" a genre and you'll come to the same hazy conclusion. If I describe a movie as having a mysterious killer and a high degree of nudity and sex, did I just describe an erotic thriller like Basic Instinct or a slasher movie like Friday The 13th? Whether you get granular or go macro, genres are a concept with, at best, fuzzy borders that can be misleading. If you wanted to slap a genre label on Bone Lake, erotic thriller is what most people would say, and for good reason. Bone Lake is an incredibly horny movie. Sex and sexuality live at the center of this movie. But it shares little in common with movies like Basic Instinct or Fatal Attraction. The story is about Sage and Diego, a couple vacationing for the weekend to celebrate a major life change; Sage has taken a full-time editorial position so she can support them while Diego quits his job to try his hand at writing a novel. But it's not long before there are signs that this trip may also be about rekindling the spark in the bedroom, even if neither of them will admit it to themselves or each other. It turns out the house is double-booked, though; another couple, Will and Cin (short for Cinnamon) show up, and as the house is big enough, they decide to share it. But Will and Cin are far more open about their sexuality, and their relationship starts to expose cracks in Sage's and Diego's. As I said, sex and sexuality are central to Bone Lake, but not in the way you expect. This isn't some softcore Skinemax movie with Shannon Tweed, with nudity galore and sex scenes every fifteen minutes with saxophone music and lighting so soft it's almost foggy. In fact, director Mercedes Bryce Morgan subverts expectations here; there is almost no sex whatsoever. The two scenes are short, and the one between Sage and Diego is there to show that Sage isn't satisfied with their sex life anymore. There is almost no nudity whatsoever, aside from some fleeting nudity in the cold open that is definitely not a sexy scene. Bone Lake is about sex, most definitely, but there is no intent to titillate or stimulate the audience. Bone Lake's intent is to put sex under a microscope. This is apparent in how differently Diego and Sage approach sex. He is oblivious to her faking orgasm during sex. When he walks in on her masturbating in the bath with the shower head, he is embarrassed, and when his flirtatious offer to join is rebuffed, he's hurt and offended. He doesn't like the idea of sex toys at all, finding them an intrusive distraction on what should be an act between nothing more than two people. But Diego's bedroom pride is also wounded because, early on in the relationship, Sage had a one-night-stand with an ex. He feels like its his duty to please her after she made that mistake. And she isn't forthcoming at all with her dissatisfaction, which is rooted in their money situation. Sex in Bone Lake isn't a subject for our viewing pleasure; it's a living, breathing function of a relationship, and Bone Lake is intent on examining what happens in a relationship when two people get out of sync, stop talking, and hope they can bang their way out of the problem. It is a canny subversion to take an erotic thriller, where sex is the centerpiece element, and strip away all eroticism. You'd think it would lead to a shallow movie, devoid of purpose, denied its very birthright, but Mercedes Bryce Morgan threads that needle by making treating sexual dysfunction seriously. Sage and Diego have been in a relationship for a long time, long enough that Diego is looking to propose, and yet they can't seem to talk about an act they willingly engage in with each other. It never feels preachy or agenda-driven. Bone Lake could've easily fallen into the trap of making one of them "right" and the other "wrong", but Morgan directs it in a way that shows Sage and Diego are contributing to their dysfunction in equal amounts. Will and Cin, antagonists though they may be, are the necessary agents of change that force them to finally look at their issues. Morgan's subversion of the genre tropes here are necessary to the story; seeing bare breasts and near-pornographic levels of sex would be a distraction. Moreover, it wouldn't be honest to the characters, given the state they're in. Will and Cin, sure, they do have a sex scene, and it is exactly what you'd expect from an erotic thriller, but by that point, they're clearly the villains. Their scene is more celebratory hedonism on their part than meant for the audience to get a vicarious thrill from. I haven't talked about Will and Cin much because they're the bad guys. They lie, they manipulate, they deceive, and they seduce. They do have a motivation, and that is one of my few issues with the movie; without spoiling it, Bone Lake goes for something envelope-pushing that is more in bad taste than it is effective and natural to the story. It doesn't outright ruin the movie, as you can see by the score, but it is one step farther than they needed to go. Bone Lake also doesn't do a great job tying in their past with the motivation; it simply says "this happened to us, so now we do this", as if there's an obvious connection between the two. And since we're talking about flaws, there are some third act needle drops that are painfully out of place and kind of undercut the mood they're going for. Speaking of the third act, you're either going to love or hate the shift in tone, and it is a drastic shift. Me, I loved it, because again, I found it to be a clever subversion of the genre. A movie like Fatal Attraction does have life-or-death stakes, but the severity in which they're depicted still feels small in scale. Morgan didn't want to settle for a simple, small-scale confrontation; she wanted to put Diego and Sage through hell, and that's exactly what happens. The third act is pure carnage. Your mileage will vary, but I loved it. Considering the cold open, I don't think the third act is out of place anyway; it sets up that a simple knife attack isn't going to satisfy the bloodlust of the bad guys. Bone Lake is not going to be for everybody. It is uncomfortably honest about sexual politics in a relationship and how failure to communicate is a both-sides issue. It teases carnality it has no intent to deliver. It isn't subtle about its roots, and doesn't try to hide where it's going, and pretty much demands you turn off your brain and just go with it. And it throws a third act at the viewer that feels ripped out of a Fede Alvarez movie. But if this sounds like it might be up your alley, it's worth a watch. Just maybe not on a date night.