Twisty Thriller Set at Hazardous Couples Retreat

Finding your short-term house rental double-booked proved a recipe for terror in Zach Cregger’s “Barbarian.” Faced with the same issue, the protagonists in Mercedes Bryce Morgan’s “Bone Lake” run a wider range of emotions — including annoyance, camaraderie, lust and suspicion — before working their way to terror again. While not perfect, the psychological thriller is cleverly conceived and confidently executed enough to make for a fun ride, one that eventually takes the full plunge into bloody black comedy terrain. 

Morgan’s prior features “Fixation” and “Spoonful of Sugar” were both horror-adjacent conceits whose attempts to get inside the minds of unstable heroines ultimately seemed more stylishly intriguing than satisfying. Some crazy people also turn out to be involved this time, too. But Joshua Friedlander’s script traverses a much more defined narrative course, even if it’s mined with twists and deceptions. You could say “Bone Lake” essentially lifts the stranger-danger couples dynamic of “Speak No Evil” but plays it in a less-than-entirely-serious erotic thriller mode, not unlike Polanski’s “Bitter Moon” back in the ’90s. That movie was misunderstood by some who didn’t grasp just how far its tongue was in cheek — a mistake no one will make by the end of the increasingly over-the-top story progress here. 

Sage (Maddie Hasson, also “Fixation’s” lead) and Diego (Brazilian actor Marco Pigossi) are a 30-ish couple who’ve been together a few years and are about to kick their commitment up a notch or two. She’s the stably employed one who’ll become sole breadwinner for a stretch, so he can abandon his community college teaching gig to focus on writing a novel. He also plans to use this getaway weekend at a secluded mansion to propose marriage. But while they’re clearly fond of each other, there are also reasons for concern: Diego worries Sage doesn’t really believe in his…