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For those wanting a slasher-horror movie that provides guilty pleasure while eliciting cringes, chances are Bone Lake is on your curiosity. This new chilling feature from filmmaker Mercedes Bryce Morgan hit theaters on October 3rd with an outlandish setup and a evocative label to match.

Note: Plot details below for the conclusion of Bone Lake.

A Blend of Humor and Terror

With a name like Bone Lake and an introductory scene featuring people sprinting butt naked through the forest—only to be hit with a hunting weapon in sensitive areas—it's safe to assume there's ample levity all through the film. Moreover, the final scenes, which show the protagonists looking worse for wear yet laughing uncontrollably side by side, carry a feeling of macabre comedy.

You would need to discover a reason to smile at, also, if you endured what Diego and Sage experience in Bone Lake. A duo full of relationship problems from the start—failure to talk, disappointing physical relations, an unfair burden of financial responsibility, and more—their bond is challenged when a second pair, Will and Cin, invade their love-filled retreat.

A Morbid Turn

What initially appears to be a contrast of contrasts between the two couples—Diego and Sage are clumsy and working-class, whereas Cin and Will have a affluent, opulent lifestyle and seem to be being intimate on all available spots—takes a dark turn as the getaway unfolds. Will and Cin play on Diego and Sage's doubts in their partnership. They circulate falsehoods and talk about the protagonists, stating to be aware of an cheating and other internal drama.

The insecurities burst in the most monumental way possible when Sage and Diego discover that Will and Cin are not merely here at Bone Lake by chance: they are the owners and have been attracting duos to the property in order to persuade them to be unfaithful on their partners. Why? Since Cin and Will are in fact brother and sister. After their incestuous affair was exposed by their family and they were split apart unwillingly, they chose to punish everyone else (including their relatives). Given that the society rejected them just because of their desired relationship, then they'll oppose the world. Will and Cin's aim is to show a reflection to all the couples they eventually end up eliminating, in an endeavor to prove that their bond is no less real (or invalid) as the affection of these different pairs they try to break up.

Surprising Resilience

But, what Will and Cin fail to consider is that Diego and Sage, in spite of their lack of communication with one another, deeply value and love each other. It just took having a deadly duo try to split them apart and take their lives to see it. While it appears serious, it is not shown that way. Bone Lake's mood is more camp than genuine horror.

The story concludes with Diego and Sage teaming up to escape Cin and Will's murderous intentions. Interestingly is that while, at the beginning of the feature, you feel a huge gap in the relationship between Sage and Diego in contrast to Cin and Will, by the finale, Bone Lake flips it around. Will and Cin separate to chase Diego and Sage, but Diego and Sage are talking more effectively now. They join forces to kill Will with a power tool. They then turn on Cin, who meets her grisly end at the depths of Bone Lake's lake—but just before the character Diego retrieves the engagement band meant for the character Sage that the character Will had swiped and presented to the character Cin.

Consequences

In the aftermath of their pair of slayings, drenched in bodily fluids, Diego and Sage sit together on the edge of a craft. Ironically, this is the most intimate they've felt since the beginning of the story, since all their romantic problems have been revealed for both of them to witness, and all they have left are their battered and bruised physiques. As if to reinforce their renewed intimacy and profound insight of one another, the character Diego leans over to put the marriage symbol on the character Sage's finger and, when she looks to view it in the illumination, the couple break into laughter.

It's not hard to grasp the cause: Earlier, the character Will asked for marriage to Cin, it was a picturesque, affectionate instant. However, when Diego repeats the act for Sage, they've recently survived a brutal nightmare. Nonetheless, Diego's proposal to Sage is not grounded in falsehoods, only the awareness that they've come out of the most terrible experience of their existence and, after all that, they even now wish to share the rest of their life as one.

Filmmaker's View

However, as filmmaker Mercedes Bryce Morgan notes, the ending doesn't necessarily mean a fairy-tale ending for Diego and Sage.

"When you experience that circumstance with a partner where you endure a violent killing spree, what do you come out of that? What do you do as a human being? Thus I sought to show all of the moments there in unison where it's this joy of 'thank God' and 'have we obtained what we've always wanted, but what the fuck just happened? How in the world do we do from here?' And then that sinking in of reality of 'what does that mean for us {now|today|from