Not many directors are operating in the erotic thriller space these days, so the darkly sexy and comedic Bone Lake certainly feels like a blood-soaked anomaly.
The film follows a struggling couple whose romantic getaway to a lavish lakeside home takes a dark turn. When another couple arrives at the rental, what should be an awkward Airbnb mixup becomes something more dangerous and seductive.
The film, directed by Mercedes Bryce Morgan and written by Joshua Friedlander, premiered at Fantastic Fest and opens in theaters today. Morgan, a USC School of Cinematic Arts graduate, made her feature debut with Fixation at TIFF in 2022, followed by Spoonful of Sugar for Shudder.
When we hopped on Zoom with Morgan, we were fascinated to learn her approach for breaking down a screenplay. She treats that first read as sacred, a moment you can never get back, and tracks her reactions in real-time. She also shared her approach to rewrites and the techniques she uses to balance multiple tones within a single story.
Dive in, if you dare.
Editor’s note: The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Final Draft: When you get a script, what's your process for starting to visualize it and break it down?
Mercedes Bryce Morgan: I know that I can only ever read a script for the first time once. So after I read it for the first time, I know what the plot twists are going to be. Something that might've felt odd for me, I might've normalized it in my head.
And so the first time I read it, I always write down in the margins how I'm feeling, I'll write down what I think is going to happen, and where I guessed it or if I didn't. And that's always a bonus.
After that, I'm able to go and look at the themes and look at the character arcs. What are their main goals in life? What is an ideal day for them? What are the tactics they use with each other and how does that contrast with them?
And then start breaking down every single department based on that and theme.
Final Draft: Are you creating character sheets for them as you're going along too?
Mercedes Bryce Morgan: Yeah, definitely. I think the look of a character really tells you a lot about them, but I think also the more and more I've directed, and also written my own stuff, and just gone through the post process of seeing what works and what doesn't in the edit, it's made me a stronger director because I'm able to give very specific script notes, to be able to flesh them out more. Because we find out what matters to people, what they hang on to.
Final Draft: You added the opening scene, which wasn't in the original script. How do you approach creating a strong hook that will keep an audience watching?
Mercedes Bryce Morgan: The reason why we created that scene is because we wanted something that showed people instantly what they were going to get into in the end.
So we wanted to show them, “Okay, we're going to deliver on the premise that we're setting you up with. Okay, we got sex and violence, let's go.” And because we didn't have that previously, the movie slow burns into horror, but we wanted to let people know they could trust us.
Final Draft: I know that you had a hand in some additional rewrites. What are the things that you really hone in on that you want to make stronger?
Mercedes Bryce Morgan: With this script in particular, it was making the woman characters even stronger. For example, there is a scene where Cin [Andra Nechita] seduces Diego [Marco Pigossi], and originally that scene didn't have any dialogue, and I thought, How interesting is it if this is also a mental seduction and a mental manipulation as well? It doesn't have to be, but I think just for myself as a viewer, that's what really entices me.
And so it's things like that. The addition of Sage [Maddie Hasson] faking her orgasms isn't something that was originally there. And I thought, What's something really specific so we can know that things aren't right, so we know what they're trying to solve as we’re going along with their journey?
Final Draft: What is the perspective that you feel that you bring to this project that no one else could have?
Mercedes Bryce Morgan: I think that possibly as a queer woman who's dated all genders, I try to look at people as people and try to see all parts of the argument, and not necessarily stereotype people.
So the fact that Diego can be very soft and comforting, but at the same time he's still dealing with not feeling like he's equal, and society judges him because of that, but maybe it's okay that they're able to be equal. And I just wanted to view everybody through that lens.
Final Draft: You already mentioned how it's a slow burn into horror, and you're dancing this line between a couple of different tones. You have some dark comedy, you have horror, you have thriller elements, you have eroticism. How do you calibrate balancing all of those tones in a story that you're telling?
Mercedes Bryce Morgan: I think it's doing all of them in a genuine way at the times that should be done.
So when we're looking at the relationship drama of it, we should feel with what they're going through and this should be treated in this way.
But when it ramps up into the reveals, and we're seeing what Will and Cin are putting everyone through, I go, “I want to have fun with this. I want to be funny, I want to be silly. Let's go for the extreme version of this.”
So it's choosing what genre we're in at what point. Or just also having a basis of comedy too.
Final Draft: Do you have any advice for a filmmaker or a writer trying to get a project off the ground?
Mercedes Bryce Morgan: I think the first thing is always have multiple projects going at once because you never know what's going to happen be it COVID or the strike. This is what's happening in the zeitgeist at one point or another.
And so if you put all your eggs in one basket, it'll be a long road. But if you constantly have things going—it’s like the stock market. You're playing the stock market, right?
Final Draft: What about working in genre filmmaking?
Mercedes Bryce Morgan: I'd say that there's stuff that you could never learn just from screenwriting without going through and watching the edit of a horror movie and watching the audience notes you get.
So for example, with thrillers, in Save the Cat, they don't teach you what I like to call our "thriller questions,” which is that your character should be asking the questions that the audience is wondering. By having them actually audibly ask that people know what they're supposed to be tracking or what the mystery is.
That's something where on my first movie, I didn't know that, and so we had to add in an ADR. And I realized, “Oh, we need to set that up for people.”
There's very specific things like that within genres and subgenres that are important screenwriting things.
Final Draft: Is there anything you wanted to add about Bone Lake?
Mercedes Bryce Morgan: We're really excited for people to see it in theaters because I think it's the best way to go and view it. And we wanted to create a story that is this mishmash of genres and just knows how to have fun, because I think that's what people are really looking for right now, but also has a heart and looks at couple dynamics.
And maybe everyone should go to couples therapy more, and the world would be a better place.