Horror Movie Review: Ash and Bone (2022)

Directed by Harley Wallen and written by Bret Miller, Ash and Bone is an ok horror movie that never rises beyond that because of its overt familiarity and overused clichés.

Lucas Vanderbilt (Harley Warren), his wife Sarah (Kaiti Wallen), and daughter Cassie (Angelina Danielle Cama) are taking a holiday toma remote cabin the woods. The aim of this trip being for Cassie to bond with her stepmother. Something that we all know you can’t force especially when she didn’t want to come on the trip anyway.

Frustrated by her father, she goes to a bar and meets Anna (Jamie Bernadette) and Tucker (Mason Heidger) who tell her a story about a local haunted house. The trio decide to go check it out but end up finding way more than dust and creaking floorboards.

The house is home to siblings May (Erika Hoveland) and Clete (Jimmy Doom), who kidnap travellers, then torture and kill them. Filming the murders for their own personal snuff collection. They manage to escape but they are seen. Which brings mayhem to the family cabin in the woods.

It’s not exactly an original sounding synopsis, is it?

That’s Ash and Bone’s biggest problem. Just how unoriginal it is. Something that might have been more possible to overlook if the other aspects of the movie made up for it. Unfortunately, it doesn’t as we get bland characters with clichéd behaviour and reactions.

We get violence and gore that should have ‘Texas Chainsaw’ levels of rawness but ends up happening mostly off-screen. We get sublots and twists that don’t feel earned. The urge to get excited about the movie just isn’t there. Even if some of the talents involved are notable. Such as how the film looks and most of the acting.

If you want a serviceable horror movie with a bit of energy in places and little capable of offending, Ash and Bone will deliver that. However, it feels like a missed opportunity. A bit more bravery with the story beats, a willingness to really make it feel grimy, a showcase of bloody violence and gore, all of this would have made Ash and Bone something more than just a repetitive and cliched disappointment.