Little Bone Lodge [2023]

May 16, 2024

Behind the ominous title, Little Bone Lodge hides a solid little thriller set in the Scottish highlands. Sadly, the story takes place over the course of one night so we won’t have the opportunity to enjoy the landscapes at all. On the other hand, I just love real-time flow movies. There’s no mucking about, wham bam, and the action starts. And the same goes for this one. After we’ve met the residents of a remote farm during a heavy storm, it’s time to meet the two visitors they’re about to have. Two small-time criminals, Jack and Matty, accidentally stumble upon the farm after a car crash. Things will go from bad to worse from there.

If the story sounds a bit familiar, it’s because it is. 2010’s The Perfect Host features a similar plot, only set in an urban environment. And just last year we had the opportunity to check out House of Darkness, a horror comedy with a supernatural twist. Last House on the Left is also one of the examples. Little Bone Lodge is not a supernatural thriller but that doesn’t take away anything from it. It actually makes it more realistic and grounded, despite the wobbly start. Yes, it’s going to take a while (about 20 minutes) for this movie to find its voice. However, once it does, it’s all smooth sailing ’till the end.

Featuring a tense atmosphere full of mystery, Little Bone Lodge is definitely a movie worth watching. The cinematography was great but the music was even better, something we rarely get in indie thrillers. Of course, you can count on terrific performances, especially from our two leads, Joely Richardson and Neil Linpow. Neil actually wrote the script as well. The story is full of twists, some of which you will see coming a mile away and some of which will take you by complete surprise. The pacing, however, is quite strange.

Especially when you consider the running time of just ninety minutes. Let alone the fact that the movie is taking place over the course of one night. Still, I don’t think you’ll be bored. The mystery of what’s actually going on will be revealed in the final third of the movie. We also have the psychological aspects that remain only superficially explored. Think more The Skeleton Key and less The Loved Ones. Well, it would appear that I just keep dropping titles of other movies you can check out after this one. And if we’re going down that path, I just have to mention one more: Calibre.

Last night, I played two movies before playing this one. Both of them were quite bad and something similar happened two nights ago as well. What I’m getting at here is that there are a lot of bad movies out there. Movies that are just too pretentious, generic, or simply boring. So, we need to appreciate the ones that are solid that much more. In Little Bone Lodge, we have a minimalist thriller with only a handful of actors and a single location. The main backstory is actually full of sadness and grief, carrying that into the events that are about to unfold on that fateful night.

The relationships between characters are surprisingly complex and authentic. They spontaneously evolve further immersing you into the story. I actually cared about these characters and what was going to happen to them. And almost all of them were morally questionable, to say the least. Neil Linpow has a lot of potential and I hope we’ll be seeing more of his movies. Finally, the same goes for the director of this movie, Matthias Hoene. I loved his 2012 zombie comedy Cockneys vs Zombies.