BONE FACE movie poster | ©2025 Uncork’d Entertainment
Stars: Elena Sanchez, Jeremy London, Alli Hart, Miles Dorleac, Jared Bankens, David Kallaway, Escalante Lundy, Laura Cayourette, Elise Greene, Betsy Borrego, Artrial Clark, Madison Wolfe, Ritchie Montgomery
Writer: Michael Donovan Horn
Director: Michael Donovan Horn
Distributor: Uncork’d Entertainment
Release Date: January 21, 2025 (digital, VOD)
BONE FACE has an intriguing concept. What if a pair of sleuths rounded up a bunch of suspects and tried to put together who was secretly Jason Voorhees? It’s a worthy notion, even if it doesn’t fully come together here.
On their last night together at Camp Marigold, the counselors get together to send off one of their own and have a sleepover in one of the buildings. They talk about scary stories, including one about a mistreated camper who became a masked maniac, killing everyone at the establishment.
There’s some good humor to be found here, as well as exposition about someone who really has been axe-murdering counselors at local camps. And then, well …
When Sheriff Cronin (Jeremy London) and Deputy McCully (Elena Sanchez) investigate the mass murder scene, they find it’s nearly identical to two others. Evidence leads them to believe the killer ditched the mask and made it to a nearby all-night roadside diner.
With the state police coming soon as backup, the two local law officers effectively force everyone in the diner to stay and answer questions. Tempers flare, secrets that may or may not be relevant are revealed, and of course a few more mysterious murders are committed.
In other words, BONE FACE could be described as FRIDAY THE 13TH meets Agatha Christie. Yes, we know Jason can’t exactly pretend to be somebody else, but most of his imitators can.
One problem in this instance is that, after the opening, writer/director Michael Donovan Horn doesn’t maintain the early tongue-in-cheek quality. This in itself is fair enough, but the details we get don’t lend themselves to being entirely serious, either.
We can appreciate the fact that BONE FACE appears to have been made on a tight budget, with not a lot of leeway in locations or running time. However, this prevents the filmmakers from planting clues that we can follow with the sheriff and deputy.
The fact that our lead investigators aren’t expert crime-solvers seems like it ought to factor in more than it does, and the dialogue tends to be a little flat (albeit often colorful).
Then there’s the matter of methodology. Even in a FRIDAY THE 13TH movie, the masked menace wouldn’t be able to kill nine people almost at once with a hatchet that has to be retrieved each time, which would enable potential victims to scatter. This specific weapon usage blows past horror movie exaggeration into parody, but it’s never mentioned, which just makes us ponder it more.
The actors are game and take the material seriously, and the production values are good.
BONE FACE has great potential, but it’s not always evident in the final production.
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