Directed by Luca Guadagnino, ‘Bones and All’ is a 2022 romantic horror film, based on the 2015 novel of the same written by Camille DeAngelis. The Warner Bros. film has already earned itself a few accolades from film festivals and awards shows, with a few more yet to be determined at upcoming events.

The film is set in the late 1980s and tells the story of Maren Yearly, portrayed by Taylor Russell. One late night, she decides to sneak out of her home to attend a sleepover with friends from her high school. She discovers she has an uncontrollable urge to consume human flesh, after instinctively attacking one of the girls before being pulled away by the others. After realising what she did, she runs home with her mouth and shirt stained in blood, to her father who’s shocked at first, but then acts quickly urging her to grab her belongings, so they can leave town immediately. This instinctively implies that this isn’t the first time it’s happened. The next day, she wakes up to see that her father has abandoned her but left behind some money, a birth certificate and tape recordings explaining why he left, some of her previous cannibalistic incidents, and details of her mother that she never knew.

Alone and afraid, Maren sets off to try to find her mother and get some answers. Along the way she meets an elderly man named Sully (Mark Rylance) who explains that he is an ‘Eater’ just like her and that there are others out there like them. Even though he gives her some insight into their way of life, she isn’t comfortable around him and moves on to the next town. She later meets Lee (Timothée Chalamet) and quickly become acquainted after they realising they’re both Eaters. Lee decides to help her travel to meet her mother and the two become close along the way.

Bones and All can easily be described as “seriously messed up”, but the story goes much deeper than all the flesh being consumed throughout the movie. The beginning quickly sets the tone for the gory and skin-crawling scenes ahead that are gonna be difficult to stomach. Underneath all of that, however, is also a romantic story. Only having each other to confide in on their road trips, they also learn a lot from each other and their bond only grows stronger, even though trouble never seems to be far behind them. Despite their need to consume raw human flesh, they also desire to live normal lives and fit into society.

Taylor Russell and Timothée Chalamet have fantastic chemistry on screen together. Even in what might be the dullest moments, their expressions and mannerisms help convey a lot of emotion and character development. There are various moments that make it easy to forget that this is actually a horror movie. The scenes that focus on their developing romance are just beautiful, poetic and will keep audiences drawn in, but also keeps their mysterious cannibalistic way of life relevant throughout the plot, and speculation of how they could possibly live like normal people.

Mark Rylance’s performance as Sully is mysterious, unpredictable, bizarre, and will easily get under your skin, and not just because he has the need to feed. He constantly speaks of himself in the third person and even though he only appears in the film on a few occasions, he always leaves a lasting impression. Various other characters throughout the film also help add to the creepy and uneasy atmosphere of the movie.

The film also does an excellent job of creating the late 80s setting. Everything from the buildings, set pieces, vehicles, countryside America and fashion of that time work together perfectly to bring audiences to that time period. The film’s score was composed by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, and has something for almost every occasion whether it’s Maren and Lee sitting side by side, cruising down the wide-open road, or during the more intense scenes.

Being based on a novel, there are of course some changes and a lot of details missed out. In the novel, it’s Maren’s mother who abandons her and the story’s focus is her searching for her father instead. The context behind certain people being ‘Eaters’ is also somewhat different and the novel has a deeper explanation behind the meaning ‘Bones and All’, that the film doesn’t quite explore enough. The film does leave a lot of questions unanswered, but the way it tells the story from the perspective of Maren and Lee, and their desire to abandon their cannibalistic instincts does make sense since them learning more about it would make their lives harder. The movie may also spark the audience’s curiosity and could even lead them to buying the book and learn the bigger story.

Bones and All can be a difficult movie to swallow, but along with the gore, there is also a deep meaningful romance story that many can relate to. What may first seem like an excuse to have gory flesh-eating scenes with piles upon piles of blood, actually becomes more of a set piece behind a love story of two young adults brought to life by Taylor Russell and Timothée Chalamet, who will keep audiences drawn in to find out what happens next. For those who aren’t the faint of heart, this is a movie that must be consumed, Bones and All…

Written by: Sammy Hanson