Bone Face review
A twist on the slasher whodunnit.
New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
Bone Face
Directed by Michael Donovan Horn
Written by Michael Donovan Horn
Starring Elena Sanchez, Jeremy London, Alli Hart, Miles Doleac, Artrial Clark, Ritchie Montgomery and Laura Cayouette
Bone Face Review
We’ve talked a lot about where independent horror movies go wrong. There are countless ways, of course. One of the easiest to prevent, yet one of the most prevalent, is biting off more than you can chew. Bone Face seems to have understood this better than most. It tackles the slasher whodunnit concept in a way that can be filmed with whatever budget the production had. It has an idea clever enough to make you wonder how it hasn’t been done like this before. The masked camp killer meets Agatha Christie.
A masked killer known as Bone Face has attacked his third summer camp…leaving a total of 41 bodies in his wake. The local sheriff and his deputy manage to track the killer back to a local diner…where a host of possible suspects are having a midnight snack. Someone in this building is the infamous Bone Face…and no one is going anywhere until that person is discovered.
Bone Face opens with a slaughter at Camp Marigold. It’s the last day of camp and the counselors are throwing a party to make the end of summer, and the final day of a beloved co-worker. It doesn’t take long for there to be nine new bodies added to the Bone Face kill count. It’s a clever move to open the film with a high-energy slasher piece. Not only does it draw you into the world…it tells you that the story’s next choice is the right one. Despite brief glimpses of some fine post-kill makeup and gore effects…Bone Face isn’t going to be able to deliver the kinds of thrills you’d want in a straight slasher story. What it can offer, however, is a new take on unmasking the mysterious killer.
Sheriff Vince Cronin (Jeremy London) and Deputy Jo McCully (Elena Sanchez) track the killer back to The Highsmith, a 24-hour diner not far from Camp Marigold. Inside the diner we find a two-person staff and several customers. A man making his way back home with his daughter…stopping to rest before continuing their drive. A projectionist obsessed with horror movies. Two bikers who aren’t interested in complying with an investigation. A war veteran, a cougar…and a photographer who managed to get a photo of the killer round out the suspects.
Cronin finds the Bone Face costume discarded in a trash bag near the diner. There is no doubt that the person he is looking for is inside of this building. This is where Bone Face turns to its most inspired decision. To present a locked door Agatha Christie mystery. Those can be difficult to pull off…but Bone Face houses a pretty good one. I made a guess on the identity of the masked killer based on an exchange of dialog early in the investigation. Everything that played out after that failed to discredit that guess. As I waited for the expected reveal…Bone Face was a step ahead of me. The clues were pointing me in the right direction…but to a different result. Now, everyone makes different guesses when they watch whodunnits…so you may get different mileage out of it. But from my perspective, the story did a great job stringing along my thoughts and not discrediting it at any turn.
I suspect it does a fine job with that for, at least, most of the characters. Most have secrets that will come out…often connected to Camp Marigold. The script goes out of its way to tell you that no one can be eliminated from contention despite the stereotype being a hulking male killer. That aspect doesn’t always work as well as you’d hope…but the point stands that it can theoretically be anyone.
Bone Face spends the bulk of its runtime locked in the diner as the investigation is conducted. The characters are all unique enough to stand out. The performances are good. Jeremy London playing grizzled local sheriff whose seen too much bloodshed worked surprisingly well for me despite his role as Brody in Mallrats being seared into my brain. Secrets and connections are revealed, tensions rise…and the story keeps every suspect firmly in play until it hits its endgame.
The climax of Bone Face falls back into the issue of what can effectively be presented on screen given a small budget. It changes locations for its big reveal…but is somehow less dynamic than the diner setting was. The lesson of “less is more” rings loudly throughout Bone Face. Luckily, it sticks to that idea more often than not and delivers an entertaining take on the slasher whodunnit.
Scare Value
Bone Face does something new with the slasher concept. It kicks off with the slashing…and then goes full blown Agatha Christie whodunnit. Not a bad one, at that. It plays to the strengths of what it can pull off on a low budget more often than not…which is good because the slasher aspects would leave you wanting if it remained the focus of the movie.
3/5
Bone Face Links
Rent/Buy from Fandango at Home and Amazon
