Free Movie of the Day: Horror movie The Bone Box

On the JoBlo Movies YouTube channel, we will be posting one full movie every day of the week, giving viewers the chance to watch them entirely free of charge. Today’s Free Movie of the Day is the horror movie The Bone Box, which marked the feature debut of writer/director Luke Genton – and this really is a textbook first feature.

First-time filmmakers are often advised to make something that takes place in as few locations as possible, ideally just one for most of the running time, and with few characters. There’s no shame in it. A lot of notable directors have gotten their start with movies that follow this advice. Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead takes place in one location and has very few characters. George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead also does, for the most part (he did need a lot of zombie extras and took a trip to Washington D.C. for the movie). Outside of horror, you have examples like Kevin Smith’s Clerks and Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs. Tarantino had over a million dollars to work with and some big stars in his cast, but he still chose to make a movie that takes place in one location and only has a few characters. So Genton is in good company with The Bone Box, which is set almost entirely within the confines of one house and features only a handful of characters.

The Bone Box digs into supernatural horror, but this isn’t exactly a haunted house movie. It’s more of a haunted person movie. And the person who is being haunted deserves it, because he’s a graverobber. You disturb the dead, you get what’s coming to you. Plenty of movies have shown us that.

The plot synopsis that can be found on IMDb was typed up by Genton himself, so we’ll share that here as well:

Depressed and reeling from his wife’s recent death, Tom has built up quite a gambling debt. He goes to stay with his wealthy Aunt Florence, hoping that she will write him into her will. When a nasty creditor is adamant that Tom is out of time, he devises a plan with Elodie, the undertaker’s daughter, to rob the graves of the rich townspeople buried in the cemetery across the road. After plundering the graves, Tom returns to Aunt Florence’s house and events take a dark turn: Tom starts to hear and see strange things that seem to coincident with the deaths of the people he robbed. Even more strangely, he seems to be the only one sensing these things. Is Tom’s conscience tricking or pricking him–or is he actually being haunted by those from whom he stole?

The film stars Gareth Koorzen, Michelle Krusiec, Maria Olsen, David Chokachi, Jamie Bernadette, Aaron Schwartz, Art Roberts, Cynthia Bravo, Maximus Birchmore, Cynthia Bravo, Tess Bellomo, Arielle Elonys, Katie Scardino, Pim de Boer, and Hannah Bear. Many of those cast members are either ghosts that Tom sees lurking around, or people that are shown on the TV in the house.

The Bone Box is largely carried by dialogue scenes, which can be tricky to decipher at times because there are a variety of accents in action here. But Genton did a fine job of writing those dialogue scenes – and also did some nice camera and editing tricks. Impressive for a first timer. Multiple moments in the film are shot as long takes, and there are several instances of fun transitions between scenes. (Kudos to editor Gonzalo Digenio, who was also the cinematographer.) It will be interesting to see what Genton does next, because there are elements in The Bone Box that make it a promising start to a career.

So take a look at The Bone Box – after all, it’s free! Then share your thoughts on the film by leaving a comment below or over on YouTube.

The movies that have previously been featured as the Free Movies of the Day can be found at THIS LINK, and also on the JoBlo Movies YouTube channel.

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