The horror of the cannibal romance Bones and All is something completely new. Big credit for the continuous goosebumps here goes to the scariest character of 2022, who actually only plays a supporting role in the film.
The 2022 film year has produced plenty of memorable horror films for scary fans with flicks like Barbarian, Nope, The Black Phone and Terrifier 2. However, the crown for the scariest character of 2022, who crawls under the skin to take up permanent residence there, was clearly taken by a character from Bones and All, who at first glance seems unimpressive.
Minor spoilers for the plot of Bones and All follow, but the ending is not given away.
Watch another German trailer for Bones and All here:
The horror of Bones and All slurps the fear from our marrow with relish
As a cannibal romance, Bones and All is a borderline cinematic experience in itself. Disturbing and beautiful at the same time, the story demands a lot from us. After all, here young Maren (Taylor Russell) on the fringes of society, with the help of like-minded Lee (Timothée Chalamet), attempts nothing less than to understand her hunger for human flesh. A stark subject as a tour-de-force, where even the camera is not afraid of blood and nausea-inducing depictions of violence.
The two young stars deliver an impressive performance in Luca Guadagnino’s film. The actor who haunts you home (mentally), however, is Mark Rylance. In Bones and All, the British actor plays the ageing cannibal Sully, who briefly becomes Maren’s culinary mentor. As the film progresses, however, there are moments that make the bloody road trip of the two junior cannibals seem almost harmless.
Sully seems like the friendly uncle next door before he shows his true face
Maren & Sully in Bones and All
It’s a creeping frisson that Mark Rylance evokes in the (not-just) horror film Bones and All. For the apprehension towards his oddball Sully, whom Maren meets for the first time alone at night at a bus stop, grows gleefully slow.
Sully “smells” the like-minded teenager, but immediately makes it clear that she has nothing to fear from him. Because cannibals don’t eat cannibals. The fact that she accompanies him home nevertheless comes with an uneasy feeling. But we suppress that for the time being, because this elderly gentleman with the droll name is clearly a sad outsider. What could possibly be hiding behind the unfashionable fishing waistcoat, the thin plait and the feather on his hat?
A whole lot, as it turns out. Because at the latest, when we find Sully munching on the corpse of a portly senior citizen with his mouth covered in blood, this horror scene is indelibly burned into our memory. The cannibal’s actions speak louder than his softly purring voice, which at this moment at the latest tips over from the gentle to the sinister.
The long rope that Sully weaves together from the hair of his victims also gives a deep insight. Here is someone who is not the (within reason) harmless cannibal who seems uncomfortable even with his hunger for human flesh. This is the behaviour of a psychotic serial killer masking his true motives.
Sully’s chosen friendliness forces Maren to meet him with politeness. Even though the panic in her eyes speaks a different language. The feeling of redemption only sets in when the teenager finally runs away from him. Nevertheless, the goose bumps when the bus passes Sully’s abandoned figure for the last time last for a long time.
So long, in fact, that it is not until the next reunion that we realise that Mark Rylance’s performance has, in truth, never quite let us pull away. It’s only towards the end of the film that Sully’s mask finally slips, proving: Sometimes you should trust your first gut feeling.
