Director

Violence and sexuality walk hand-in-hand in “Bone Lake,” a new thriller now playing in theaters via Bleecker Street. In fact, the film opens with a nude couple running away from certain death through the forest, an attention-grabbing opening.

That wild spirit is what attracted director Mercedes Bryce Morgan to Joshua Friedlander’s twisty script about two couples who accidentally double-book an Airbnb. As they get to know each other, dark and sinister secrets start to emerge.

“It’s something that wasn’t afraid to be extreme,” she says of the script. “I’ve been so excited about thrillers coming back and the fact that this movie doesn’t shy away from sex. But I’m also attracted to the fact that it’s like a European relationship dramedy. We start off, and you really care about these characters, because the relationship is the mechanism that the horror goes through later. To be able to have that but then actually pay it off and go big or go home in the end made me go, ‘OK, this is what I’m interested in.’”

While Gen Z has been oddly outspoken about wanting less sex in their entertainment, Morgan thinks that most audiences will be able to ride the film’s wavelength.

“Everything is 180, right?” she says. “Either we think skinny jeans are cool and then we’re like ‘Baggy pants are cool’ — I’m pretty sure skinny jeans are going to be cool again. So I think it’s a generational thing. As a millennial, we’re like, ‘Sex in movies … of course.’ I think younger generations probably go, ‘You guys fucked up so many things. Why are you doing this?’ The thing that I say is the people who love this movie are the people who are going to come and see it. And if it’s not for someone, that’s okay. But it makes the people who love our movie just a stronger fan base.”

That said, Morgan was sure to make the sexuality safe and comfortable on set by setting some ground rules.

“First of all, if there’s female nudity, I make sure that there’s male nudity. It’s either everyone’s nude or no one’s nude, to equal it out,” she says. “It was also talking about, ‘What’s the story reason behind why we’re seeing something?’ Nudity is almost even more fun or interesting sometimes if it’s not used in a sexual context.”

Another key to making an erotic thriller is to make sure the cast has chemistry, and Morgan was able to amp that up with a decidedly G-rated exercise.

“One of the first things I did is when Alex Roe and Andra Nechita got to set to play Will and Cin … It might sound silly, but I had them just dance to fun, silly music together because you’re able to get comfortable with someone physically fast,” she says. “That’s a really easy way to do it. They probably thought, ‘Man, Mercedes, this is like in kindergarten. Why are you having us do this?’ But I go, ‘We need to break down these barriers and just integrate with each other.’”

That sense of play kept Morgan energized during the indie film’s shoot, as well as its long road to theaters. “Bone Lake” first debuted at Fantastic Fest in 2024, making it over a year from its world premiere to wide release date. She remains energized and excited for audiences to see it.

“Whenever I choose a movie, I need to love it so much that I expect to carry it around for years of my life,” she says. “So one could be like, ‘Man, it’s been so long,’ but also we wanted to wait to do it the right way, because the right way is for us to release it in theaters. Also, my job is getting to talk about sex and silliness. So just being able to continue to do that with this, I go, ‘All right, I’m fucking here. Let’s go.’ That’s awesome.”

Watch the “Bone Lake” trailer below.