Bone Lake – Movie Review (4/5)

BONE LAKE is a new horror-thriller that features a survival plot and has both psychological and splatter drivers. With a wild rollercoaster of a story, it’s a very entertaining and fun watch. Read our full Bone Lake movie review here!

BONE LAKE is a survival horror-thriller that offers so much more than I expected. It’s part psychological thriller, part splatter horror, and entirely crazy.

I loved it!

With just four key characters and one location, this movie escalates wildly. It’s kitsch, steamy, bloody, and wildly entertaining. Even the runtime of 94 minutes was ideal for this genre hybrid.

Continue reading our Bone Lake movie review below. Find it in US theaters from October 3, 2025.

From relationship drama to a battle for survival

With Bone Lake, the ideal vacation spot (despite the name of the lake being “Bone Lake”) will soon turn into a nightmare. Of course, one might think that name alone was a warning sign, but it is a very gorgeous house and location.

Anyway, we meet Sage (Maddie Hasson) and Diego (Marco Pigossi) just as they’re getting ready to start their vacation at this amazing rental. Soon, they will be busy with work and life, so this is their last chance to enjoy each other.

Unfortunately, they will soon be joined by another couple. Cin (Andra Nechita) and Will (Alex Roe) arrive to claim they have also rented this secluded lakeside estate for the weekend.

Once the shock of their solitude being broken has subsided, the two couples agree to try and make the most of it.

However, because this is a horror story about survival, this will be a big mistake. Fortunately, the story of Bone Lake is also full of darkly hilarious moments and seductive challenges, so before things get bloody, they just get very weird!

So many games and only one way out

Admittedly, there are plenty of twists you see coming in Bone Lake. However, that’s mainly because they’ve been teased or because we genre fans will recognize the signs. Again, if there are “signs,” then those are clues as well.

No matter how many twists or plot developments I saw coming, this genre hybrid was still so much fun that it didn’t matter.

Also, it becomes clear that while mind games are played throughout, they will escalate. Not only will everything become more overt, but it will also become much scarier and more dangerous.

Towards the end, it seems the only way to win any game is to outlive your opponent. In other words, if your opponent doesn’t die, then you just might!

While watching Bone Lake, I was reminded of the 2022 Shudder movie Who Invited Them, which I recommend watching if you enjoy this 2025 release. And vice versa, obviously.

Watch Bone Lake in theaters

The director of Bone Lake is Mercedes Bryce Morgan (Spoonful of Sugar), and she has created a rather brilliant genre hybrid that utilizes both dark comedy, psychological thriller triggers, and brilliant practical effect splatter horror.

The screenplay comes from Joshua Friedlander and Adele Lim (Crazy Rich Asians), and the casting of each character was spot-on.

From Maddie Hasson (Malignant, Elevation) and Marco Pigossi (Gen V) as our loving, but struggling, couple, to Alex Roe (Rings) and Andra Nechita (Fatal Attraction) as the obvious instigators.

Oh yes, you can say that I was one happy camper while watching this one. Be sure to check it out with like-minded genre fans in a movie theater near you. Enjoy!

Bone Lake is out in U.S. Theaters from October 3, 2025.

Details

Director: Mercedes Bryce Morgan
Writers: Joshua Friedlander, Adele Lim
Cast: Maddie Hasson, Marco Pigossi, Alex Roe, Andra Nechita