I first heard of Ash and Bone at the start of 2020, and now nearly three years later I have gotten to see it. Directed by Harley Wallen (Agramon's Gate), who also co-stars in this, and written by Bret Miller in his feature film writing debut, this sounded on its synopsis like a typical cannibal family type horror, and while I was interested to see it, my expectations were pretty low. I was pleasantly pleased then to see this did something a little different with the cannibal family sub-genre, something that came at the perfect time.
Lucas (Wallen) and wife Sarah (Kaiti Wallen - Agramon's Gate) have left Detroit to go on an extended vacation to Lucas's childhood home town. Along with them is Cassie (Angelina Danielle Cama - An Intrusion), the teenage daughter of Lucas who has recently gotten into trouble after falling in with a bad crowd. It is hoped the change of location will be good for the troubled girl, something that has caused growing resentment from her of her dad and step-mom. Sneaking off to a local bar, Cassie befriends two locals, and while talking about small town legends, she learns of a creepy family, the McKinleys, who live in a property on the edge of town, and who it is suggested are responsible for the many disappearances of young women in the area. Seeing it as something fun to do, Cassie convinces the locals to take her to the remote house, and they end up breaking in to have a snoop around. Having assumed the legends to have no basis in truth, the trio are shocked to discover evidence that is not the case, and while they manage to escape, their intrusion didn't go unnoticed by Clete McKinley (Jimmy Doom - Love Immortal) and his sister May (Erika Hoveland - Before I Wake).
After a fun little prologue in which a young woman is axed to death while trying to escape from the cannibal's home, the film goes to the arrival of the family. It isn't long before Cassie's ill fated expedition to the home of the cannibals, and it was here I expected the majority of the film would take place. That was when things got switched around, with Cassie and her new friends escaping relatively easily. Ash and Bone then changed track, with this becoming a character piece about the teen and her family. There are infrequent flashbacks to show Cassie with her city friends, which slowly reveal what led to her being taken away by her father. I really liked the family dynamic going on. Sarah for instance may be a step-mother, but rather than be a stereotype she actually came across as measured and rational. Then there is Lucas, far from the controlling stern father I would typically expect, he is also quite measured in his dealings with his daughter. I guess you could say Cassie was the weakest of the three, being a gloomy rebellious teenager, but she still had layers to her, with efforts to give at least her and Lucas some backstory that explained parts of their characters.
So, the antagonists were not the central focus that I expected, and while they did feel somewhat typical of the inbred cannibal character type, they had something that made them that little bit more interesting. Sure they were crazy, but not too over the top in most of their scenes, making it a little bit believable that they could appear to function as normal humans.
I thought that this would be a blood soaked horror, but it was more tame than I expected. Victims often die off camera, or even between scenes, so the elements of torture and mayhem where lacking. For me this was a good thing, as watching this on a lazy Sunday morning, and still recovering from Covid, I wanted something more chilled to watch. Not that this is chilled, there is a feeling of menace that pops up from time to time, and the final act was tense, but I came to like the protagonists and so didn't want any type of extended scene of them being tortured.
I thought that this would be a blood soaked horror, but it was more tame than I expected. Victims often die off camera, or even between scenes, so the elements of torture and mayhem where lacking. For me this was a good thing, as watching this on a lazy Sunday morning, and still recovering from Covid, I wanted something more chilled to watch. Not that this is chilled, there is a feeling of menace that pops up from time to time, and the final act was tense, but I came to like the protagonists and so didn't want any type of extended scene of them being tortured.
Expecting a poor man's version of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, I was impressed with the direction this indie horror went in. The story may be very derivative but I enjoyed the way it was told. The focus on characters was a good decision, and the central plot of Cassie and friends knowing the crimes the family had committed, but intending not to speak a word of it was interesting. Throughout this was well shot, and while Ash and Bone might not satisfy those wanting more on-screen violence, it was happy coincidence that this was exactly the type of horror film I happened to be wanting to watch at the particular time that I did.
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