Disclaimer: I’m a blind film critic. Welcome to Earth.

Spoilers? I feel like a spoiler warning is necessary, even as I try to dodge the twists and turns, but it is nearly impossible to discuss what does and doesn’t work without grazing it at least.

If you want a cut to the chase on this, for a low budget horror movie with only four cast members, it does a mostly fine job.Could it have been better? sure.

Getting more into it, the film opens on a couple being hunted in the woods by someone. It doesn’t work out well for them, and they get killed in our traditional opening kill sequence that is more of an exhausted trope of horror films than necessary.What this does, is set up far in advance a raised stakes, not allowing for the film to get us there on its own. We keep waiting for the other shoe to drop, when the film plays much better if you know less at the beginning. hell, even just a shot of people running through the woods, without being hunted or killed, could have worked by leaving the door wide open. You are already a horror film called Bone Lake. your audience walked in looking for something around every corner.

We’re introduced to one couple, and rather quickly, another one. the gag here is that both couples booked the house through some AirB&B knockoff. instead of one couple going to a hotel, as one of them points out “where they’d be around strangers anyway”, they decide to get to know each other a bit better and both couples stay.

However, things start getting weird, the plot moves in a somewhat heavy handed manner, and we’re at the inevitable place where the connection from these two couples to the ones killed at the beginning are made clear. This film is so interesting, as it has all these parts that should work. it has a cast of mostly unknown actors, and they really do handle the roles well, or at least as directed. The guys fare better, as the women get that failed Bechdel test where they seem to be around for sexual pleasure, their attractiveness, or another vapid purpose. The girl from the second couple, Sin (short for Cinnamon) has at least some personality, but still feels like a character written by a guy… except… not. Bone Lake is directed by Mercedes Bryce Morgan directed, and even though the script is from a guy (Joshua friedlander), she still has the task of deciding how to frame and edit these ladies. I’m surprised this is what she chose.

but there’s a good movie in here. it is just somewhat clumsily put together. the concept would work, had they trusted it to. this is the kind of film that a better and more accomplished horror director could have stumbled into and turned into something really special. the trick here is in not revealing any of your cards for as long as possible. In fact, try to reveal other cards not in your hand for a maximum misdirect. bone Lake needed a bit of magic behind the camera it just never gets.

that’s not to say I didn’t like it, or that I wouldn’t recommend it. I’m just harder sometimes on a film that I truly believe has the potential in it.

Bone Lake is fine as is, but it is hard to grapple with what it could have been, as the film itself has good bones, a solid structure on which to build a great movie. This lake couldn’t see the forest for the trees.

And if you’re wondering about the audio description, so am I. No one took credit for it, so what is the point of gushing over something with no credits attached? An odd choice. What is more strange is that the track is perfectly fine. It never ruins a scare, describes all the sex and violence required, and managed a small film with a tiny cast.

Fresh: 6.7/10