Movie Review: "Ash and Bone" (2022)
Ash and Bone Movie Review
Written by Stuart D. Monroe
Released by Amazon Prime
Directed by Harley Wallen
Written by Bret Miller
2022, 97 minutes, Not Rated
Released on October 4th, 2022
Starring:
Angelina Danielle Cama as Cassie Vanderbilt
Jamie Bernadette as Anna Lambeth
Mason Heidger as Tucker
Mel Novak as Bartender Louie
Harley Wallen as Lucas Vanderbilt
Kaiti Wallen as Sarah Vanderbilt
Jimmy Doom as Clete McKinley
Erika Hoveland as May McKinley
Review:
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Dad and his new wife take rebellious goth daughter to small home town to get away from some serious (enough) trouble she got herself into in the big city (in this case it’s Detroit). Sounds like a movie we’ve all seen a few times before. What if I then told you that said daughter makes new friends and uncovers a dark town secret? Yep. Seen that one, too. Did I mention that the daughter is shitty and mean to the new stepmother (who looks to be not much older than she is herself)? Yep…that tracks.
What if you found out that the horrible town secret comes in the form of a pair of incestuous, hulking, batshit crazy siblings who fill up missing poster boards faster than I fill up the basket they give you at Pluckers Wing Bar for your dead soldiers? I’m guessing I’d have a bit more of your attention. Everyone loves incestuous, hulking, batshit crazy siblings. It’s the trope that keeps on giving.
Cassie Vanderbilt (Angelina Danielle Cama; Cemetery Stories) is not a happy teenager. She’s even less happy after she steals a cop car and ends up forcing her father (now her only parent after her mother’s death) to move her all the way up to the Michigan boonies. Her unhappiness is further exacerbated by the fact that her father (Harley Wallen; Tale of Tails) is bringing a new stepmom (Kaiti Wallen; Agramon’s Gate) along. She does make a couple of new friends who turn her onto the local legend of the McKinley house, a 100-year-old farm inhabited by a “creepy” brother and sister (Jimmy Doom and Erika Hoveland, respectively) who are rumored to have killed people. The dumb kids investigate and discover a house of horrors / snuff film studio full of all the bad shit you’d imagine a place like that would have. They think they get away unnoticed, but in small town middle of nowhere you’d be surprised who knows who and who might be related.
Yeah, it’s that kind of movie.
Funny thing is that as trope-laden as Ash and Bone is, there’s still some real heart on display in the family drama (though it takes a bit to come to fruition). When you combine that with wonderfully unhinged performances from Jimmy Doom (great name!) and Erika Hoveland as the titular psycho siblings, the result is a film that finishes strong and delivers more than a handful of intense and uncomfortable moments. While it’s not the most graphic or SFX-laden film by any stretch of the imagination, that doesn’t mean that Ash and Bone doesn’t know how to deliver the goods. It also doesn’t hurt that it’s a fantastic looking film from a technical and aesthetic standpoint. Quality production matters.
Equal parts crime thriller, backwoods psycho horror film, and home invasion, Ash and Bone does have a drag in the middle when it’s shifting gears and trying to figure out exactly what it wants to be. Once it settles into the final act, however, the film earns much of its rating with an aggressive finish that sees the final girl trope turned a bit sideways for fun.
And really, isn’t about how strong you finish?
Grade:
3.5 out of 5.0 stars
