Bones and All Review
Cannibals are not vampires, werewolves, zombies, warlocks, demons or whatever. They very much exist in the world we inhabit, which is what has always made their inclusion in film tough for me to stomach. However, after a string of them from We Are What we Are to Raw they’ve been growing as an extremely tricky yet possible subject matter for directors as of recent years. And when I first saw the trailer for Bones and All I certainly got all those vibes if they were directed by James Foley. Yet I didn’t want to see it until I saw Guadagnino’s Suspiria and was a bit more attuned to his take on the 2015 source material (which, surprisingly enough, was written by an American). I suppose one thing that stood out in a way that is worth pointing out is how it goes for a reverse direction that Summer of ’84 worked with in terms of that same outlandish premise. Meaning that Bones and All was as creative an idea as most 80s movies would’ve gone for yet it took someone as daring as Guadagnino to bring it into fruition. To put it plainly from the moment we see Maren’s character go to that same extreme which opens the film’s premise we know how easy capturing that 80s "feel" was compared to the type of horror this film was going for. And just the way this film is shot throughout is a sight to behold as it takes us to an aesthetic, and even mood, of American filmmaking that may have been lost for most directors. Scenes of houses, landscapes, and forests make you very much forget you’re watching a subgenre of horror because the real challenge has always been in that same narrative requiring zero to no comfort zone rather than the technical aspects it took to bring it to life. I’d of course be lying if I said this is still a film for everyone EVEN IF you can sit through it until the end. Suspiria was an entirely different experience despite being based on something uncomfortably niche. But the journey was still assembled in a way that recalls that time and the painful levels of effort (both behind and in front of the screen) it takes to bring it back.