Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.

From Goldilocks to Hansel and Gretel, we’ve all grown up with an innate  fear and fascination of cabins in the woods. They’re isolated, mysterious and possibly dangerous. And that goes for movies, too, with cabins in the woods a common recurring theme, especially in horror movies. So this week, I’m looking at three such movies all opening this weekend. 

There’s a fugitive in a house made of stone, a pair of twins looking for the Queen of Bones, and a young couple renting a place beside Bone Lake.

Anemone

Co-Wri/Dir: Ronan Day-Lewis

Jem and Nessa (Sean Bean, Samantha Morton) are a comfortably couple raising their 19 year old son Brian (Samuel Bottomley). So why is Brian at home in his room? He got in a fight and nearly beat the other guy to death. He’s depressed and frustrated, and desperately needs the help that they can’t provide. So Nessa asks Jem to do something he’s sworn never to do: find a man who disappeared 20 years ago. So Jem, armed with only a cryptic piece of paper with longitudinal measurements and a sealed letter from Nessa, sets out for a journey into a forest somewhere in the UK. 

His clues lead him to a stone hut, literally in the middle of nowhere. As he approaches, a grizzled old man almost blows his  head off with a rifle, but, just in time, he recognizes the sound of a clicking, childhood toy. It’s Ray (Daniel Day-Lewis) a fugitive from justice, who has been hidden away all this time. He is somehow  connected to a killing that occurred during The Troubles in Northern Ireland. Not only that, he’s Jem’s big brother. What happened all those years back, what is Ray’s connection to Nessa and Brian, and will he agree to come out of hiding?

Anemone is a passionate and personal story about brothers, fathers and family history. Along the way, there’s lots of whiskey spilt and dirty jokes told, along with hiking and camping, punch-outs and wrestling. Lots of guy stuff, a Man’s-Own story. And it’s filmed among spectacular scenery, a stone beach, a glowing moon, distant hills and mountains. Just gorgeous. Daniel Day- Lewis — who retires every 5-10 years, then makes another movie — puts a lot into his role, and Sean Bean is excellent as his foil. Samuel Bottomley seems like another Barry Keoghan. And there are some cool dreamlike sequences, and I even shed a tear near the end. But the movie as a whole just doesn’t seem quite right. It’s too contrived, too set up.  I got a lot out of it aesthetically, but found it hard to connect emotionally. It’s directed by Daniel’s son Ronan and they wrote it together, but it’s just OK, not great. 

Maybe it’s too weak a script and too strong an actor for a first-time directors to handle.

Queen of Bones

Dir: Robert Budreau

It’s the 1930s in a small house deep in the woods outside Portland, Oregon. Fraternal twins Lily and Sam are in their early teens. They were raised together by their single dad, a devout Christian (Martin Freeman).  He’s a craftsman who makes exquisite violins to order. Lily (Julia Butters) takes after her mom, a violin virtuoso, while Sam (Jacob Tremblay) is more interested in trains and cars — he wants to be a mechanic, though his family still rides a horse and buggy. Their father has always said their mother died before they were born and it’s a miracle they came out alive, but they still wonder about what happened to her. And around this time, when they both reach puberty, Lily starts seeing strange cryptic signs carved into trees in the woods. What could they mean? She has dreams about wolves, and, if she concentrates hard enough, she thinks she can control the weather.

One day,  Ida-May (Taylor Schilling) a local shopkeeper, drops by their home. She flirts with their dad, as they’re both widowed. But she also leaves behind a trunk of the twins’ mother’s possessions they inherited from their late grandfather. It’s full of shawls and dresses. But hidden at the bottom is a book of spells and incantations written by her mom. Lily hopes they can explain the mysteries surrounding her mother. But they have to keep it hidden from their dad, who abhors anything related to witchcraft, and keeps the twins separated from anyone but him. Who is the Queen of the Bones? Was their mom a witch?Did Lily inherit her powers?  And is there someone out there who can answer all these questions?

The Queen of Bones is a fairytale about a pair of twins trying to find a witch while evading their over-protective father. It’s low-budget, and simple, but kinda neat. It’s told in a series of short chapters, leading inexorably toward a dramatic end. Though set in Oregon, the locations and some of the cast is Canadian, from Jacob Tremblay (he was the little boy in Room) to the great stage actor Clare Coulter. Julia Butters is excellent as Lily. 

I like witches and fairytales and cabins in the woods so, while not a terrific movie, I enjoyed it anyway.

Bone Lake

Dir: Mercedes Bryce Morgan

Sage and Diego are a professional couple heading for a luxury weekend in the country. Diego (Marco Pigossi) teaches creative writing at a community college but wants to write a novel. Sage (Maddie Hasson) is a freelance journalist known for her provocative features about sex toys. They are at a turning point in their relationship. Sage has agreed to take a desk job — an editing position —  so Diego can pursue his dream for a year. And unbeknownst to her, he plans to propose to her, with his late grandmother’s ring. But when they get there, The BnB they rented is far from the rustic cabin they expected. It’s an enormous, elegant mansion on a huge lot overlooking a lake. It seems way too fancy for what they payed, but they decide not to look a gift horse in the mouth. They settle quite nicely in their new digs. Until another couple shows up claiming they rented the house for the weekend, too!

Sage and Diego decide  to go with the flow, and let them share the place — it’s a huge mansion, remember. And the other couple happens to be younger, better-looking and scantily dressed. The appropriately-named Cin, short for Cinnamon (Andra Nechita), looks like a model, and so does her boyfriend, Will (Alex Roe). While Sage and Diego are looking for some alone time, Can and Will prefer games, both sexual and psychological. Together they explore the locked rooms in the house, one quite sexual, another occult. Cin and Will proceed to ingratiate themselves into Sage and Diego’s lives, splitting them apart for intimate talks… and possible seductions. But as the games turn serious, no one knows who to trust. Who is behind this weird house, and what do they want?

Bone Lake is a psychological thriller about the relations between two couples in an isolated house in the woods. What starts out as a sex comedy, gradually shifts into a violent thriller/horror. There are hints from the start — the opening scene involves a naked couple pursued by unknown assailants carrying crossbows — but it’s left ambiguous whether it’s just a scene from Diego’s novel or an actual event within the movie. While not entirely original, there’s more than enough enough sex and violence to keep you interested. The acting’s good and the tension is palpable.

All in all, Bone Lake is pretty good horror.

Anemone and Bone Lake both open this weekend in Toronto; check your local listings. And Queen of Bones is now available digitally and on demand.

This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website culturalmining.com.