“Bone Lake,” a wry erotic thriller from the director Mercedes Bryce Morgan, is the kind of date movie bound to send couples home in arguments.
Sage (Maddie Hasson) and Diego (Marco Pigossi) are lovers on shaky ground, fraught with long-simmering concerns over finances and fidelity. When they find that they’ve booked the same vacation rental as Will (Alex Roe) and Cin (Andra Nechita), a great-looking couple with an easygoing charm, the tension between Sage and Diego reaches a breaking point. As Will and Cin warm from ingratiating to flirtatious, “Bone Lake” poses some provocative questions: Are Sage and Diego solid enough to withstand temptation? And even if they decline the overtures, will there be anything left of their trust?
This is all compelling, if familiar, psychosexual territory for the erotic thriller, a genre that thrives on lust and envy. If you’ve seen “Basic Instinct” or “Fatal Attraction,” you can doubtless guess where “Bone Lake” is headed, but Morgan handles the escalation into violence adroitly, staging the all-out carnage of the movie’s third act with flair.
Pigossi and Hasson are grounded and believable, while Nechita and especially the extra-smarmy Roe, are more exaggerated and engrossing, with an over-the-top magnetism that has a creepy edge. The only serious liability is the script, which never quite goes far enough. The provocative questions don’t have provocative answers, and though the film gestures toward edginess, it feels altogether too tame, lacking a bunny-boiling moment that would really make you squirm.
Bone Lake
Rated R for language, nudity, drug use and graphic violence. Running time: 1 hour 34 minutes. In theaters.
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