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For those looking for a slasher-horror flick that delivers mindless entertainment while making you wince, odds are Bone Lake has grabbed your attention. The latest chilling feature from director Mercedes Bryce Morgan arrived at cinemas on the third of October with an ridiculous concept and a suggestive title to suit.

Note: Spoilers below for the conclusion of Bone Lake.

A Blend of Comedy and Darkness

Considering the moniker like Bone Lake and an initial moments featuring characters running completely nude through the wilderness—only to be targeted with a bow in vulnerable spots—it's safe to assume there's plenty of comic relief all through the movie. Moreover, the film's ending, which show the central pair looking worse for wear yet giggling hysterically side by side, exude a sense of macabre comedy.

It would be necessary to find something to smile at, also, if you experienced what Diego and the character Sage experience in Bone Lake. A duo full of romantic issues from the get-go—poor dialogue, disappointing physical relations, an unequal share of financial responsibility, etc.—their bond is strained when a second pair, the character Will and the character Cin, interrupt their love-filled retreat.

A Dark Shift

Seemingly at the start to be a clash of opposites between the two pairs—Diego and Sage are clumsy and blue-collar, whereas Cin and Will have a rich, lavish lifestyle and seem to be kissing on every surface possible—shifts to horror as the getaway progresses. Cin and Will manipulate Sage and Diego's doubts in their partnership. They tell untruths and gossip about the opposite pair, claiming to know about an infidelity and further conflicts.

These doubts burst in the biggest way imaginable when Sage and Diego learn that Cin and Will aren't just here at Bone Lake by chance: they possess it and have been enticing pairs to the grounds in order to persuade them to stray on their loved ones. For what purpose? As Cin and Will are actually related by blood. After their incestuous affair was exposed by their parents and they were pulled away by force, they chose to get back at the world (including their relatives). Given that the world rejected them only for their desired relationship, then they'll oppose the world. Cin and Will's aim is to reflect back to all the couples they eventually end up eliminating, in an endeavor to prove that their bond is no less real (or illegitimate) as the affection of these additional duos they try to separate.

Surprising Bonding

Yet, what Will and Cin overlook is that Diego and Sage, despite their lack of communication with one another, do care for and love each other. It required having a killer pair try to split them apart and kill them to realize it. While it appears dark, it is not presented that way. Bone Lake's mood is closer to satire than true terror.

The film concludes with Sage and Diego working together to escape Cin and Will's deadly plans. Interestingly is that while, at the start of the movie, you sense a deep abyss in the bond between Diego and Sage in comparison to Cin and Will, by the end, Bone Lake flips it around. Will and Cin go their own ways to pursue Diego and Sage, but Diego and Sage are communicating better by this point. They join forces to slay the character Will with a chainsaw. They then turn on Cin, who meets her grisly end at the bottom of Bone Lake's lake—but not before the character Diego reclaims the marriage symbol meant for the character Sage that the character Will had swiped and given to Cin.

Aftermath

After all the chaos of their double murder, drenched in bodily fluids, Sage and Diego rest side by side on the edge of a vessel. Unexpectedly, this is the most intimate they've been since the beginning of the film, given that all their relationship troubles have been exposed for each of them to see, and all they have to hold onto are their injured and sore selves. As though to confirm their fresh bond and deep connection of one another, Diego leans over to put the engagement band on Sage's finger and, when she rotates to examine it in the sunlight, the pair start chuckling.

One can easily to see why: At the time, the character Will proposed to the character Cin, it was a perfect, loving scene. When the character Diego follows suit for the character Sage, they've just gotten away from a terrifying experience. And yet, Diego's marriage offer to the character Sage is not based on falsehoods, only the realization that they've emerged from the most horrific event of their time and, despite everything, they even now desire to spend the rest of their life as one.

Creator's Perspective

However, as filmmaker Mercedes Bryce Morgan notes, the finale doesn't necessarily mean a perfect future for Sage and Diego.

"If you go through that scenario with someone where you endure a murderous bloodbath, how can you come out of that? What do you do as a human being? Thus I wanted to capture all of the moments there as one where it's this elation of 'thank goodness' and 'are we getting what we've always wanted, but what the fuck just happened? What the fuck do we do now?' And just that sinking in of reality of 'what does that mean for us {now|today|from