Little Bone Lodge (2023)

After its premiere at Glasgow Frightfest the new film from director Matthias Hoene, probably still best known for 2013's highly entertaining COCKNEYS VS ZOMBIES, gets a digital release from Signature.

Don't expect laugh a minute stuff here, though. LITTLE BONE LODGE is a very different beast from its director's debut feature. Maisy (Sadie Siverall) lives in an isolated farmhouse with her mother (Joely Richardson) and wheelchair-confined, essentially paralysed father (Roger Ajogbe). One night during a storm two men come seeking shelter after what they claim has been a terrible accident. One of them, Jack (Neil Linpow who also wrote the screenplay) has a piece of wreckage protruding from his belly that will likely kill him if it isn't removed. Luckily mother has a medical history and is able to stitch him up, not realising that the two men are criminals on the run with a stack of cash and other villains in hot pursuit. But the villains themselves are in for some nasty surprises.

Low-key and pretty much confined to the farm where all the action takes place, LITTLE BONE LODGE goes from 'obviously all is not as it seems here' at the beginning to 'this is completely barking ridiculous' by the end. Those good at shutting the logic bit of their brains off entirely will enjoy it the most, but everyone else will be questioning every single increasingly implausible plot twist as the film goes on. Linpow has given himself a lot of the explanatory dialogue which is a shame as, whether through accident of recording or other reasons, his voice is the most difficult to understand. Veering from suspense thriller to nasty horror and ending up in a Western-style shootout, LITTLE BONE LODGE is all over the place, but at least it shows that on the basis of his filmography so far Matthias Hoene is incapable of making anything boring, and for that at least he deserves praise. Here's the trailer:

Matthias Hoene's LITTLE BONE LODGE is out on digital from Signature Entertainment on Monday 22nd May 2023