The Bone Box

Super slow and boring, acting is just OK by some but terrible by others, meant to be creepy but it just isn't, couldn't even finish it.

Forced to move in with his aunt, a down-on-his-luck man finds himself drawn to grave robbing a cemetery across the street to help make ends meet, but when a series of encounters and visions cause him to believe he's being haunted he sets out to prove his very own sanity against the delusions.

Overall, this one wasn't all that great. One of the film's better qualities here is the rather fun and genuinely creepy ghost scenes that arise once the actual deed takes place. Despite tackling overly familiar genre tropes such as walking behind people who are unaware of their presence, suddenly and unexpectedly appearing when he least expects them or quick flashes of them moving when he looks away, there's still a generally creepy presence of the ghosts here throughout the first half. As this opts for a psychologically-driven approach regarding the ghosts' true nature of being there or if he's going crazy, the film generates some solid tension and thrills as they start gradually becoming more involved in the story. As well, since this increased amount of screentime means an enhanced amount of action and confrontations within the final half, that gives this some enjoyable action at the finale as well as the thrills. These, though, are all that works here. There are a few problems to be had here. The main issue is the wholly bland and unimpressive pacing that makes this one far too drawn-out for its good. The opening scenes showing the latest graverobbing adventure and arguing over the initiative to do it on his own just doesn't get this one going on a strong note, especially as the context clues for his life situation and their plan to rob graves to fix it all come later in the film. This idea of dropping us into the thick of their plan and then back-tracking to see what caused him to come up with the plan or what's their goals to get away with it all starts this off on a generally dull note without much in the way of genre activity. That's compounded by the numerous side plots about their original need to engage in the graverobbing or the gambling issues that pop up which leave the pacing somewhat slack for the most part. There are also big issues here with the inability to sell the others on the hauntings going on. Since this one plays so often within the realm of whether or not he's genuinely seeing ghosts or is just tormented by a guilty conscience, there's a real lack of urgency and intensity towards the scares since they're only happening to him. That creates a lessened impact in this if there's no real threat to anyone else which is further troubled by the general inactivity they engage in as a whole. The continuous notion of flash-cut appearances around the house yet doing nothing beyond freaking him out rarely creates anything to the main drama-like tone established here for the majority of the running time which might be off-putting to some looking for a more intensive genre experience. All told, these issues are what hold this one down.

Rated Unrated/R: Violence and Language.

The film opens with this quote from Proverbs 26:27. Unfortunately, it is true of the film. By far one of the worst films I've seen - The acting is subpar, awkward and unengaging, with the exception of Maria Olsen's performance as Aunt Florence. However, Olsen's solid performance does little to help drag this film out of its pit.

The film is about a graverobber who sees visions of the people whose graves he robbed. His partner in crime serves as his plea to sanity, seeking to convince him that it's his guilt that's stirring the visions.

Everything that occurs in the film can be seen coming from a mile away. When the graverobber's partner drops the photographs of the people whose graves they robbed, and the graverobber is supposedly in shock, the viewer can't help rolling his eyes. I'd rather not use the term, but I can't refrain - Cliché - That just sums the film up. The main character sees a painting changing, how original. It's not just the unoriginality of it all, but the lead actor's performance is truly lackluster. He seems to be thinking about something else during the film - Aunt Florence calls him "distant," but that term doesn't do him justice, the acting is just atrocious. His female counterpart does alright, but this does not rectify the awkwardness of onscreen relations.

Furthermore, the film is all over the place. Constant flashbacks of his wife run through the lead's mind, which are similarly unengaging and downright boring, not to mention they do nothing to contribute to the script. It's clear the idea was for the lead character to have some sort of cathartic experience by realizing his guilt and owning up to it, but the horrendous acting, along with the cliché scares, unengaging script, and just about everything else make this film a shameful attempt at cinema.

At least there are films of such low status to fill the 1-star rating slot.

I thought this was pretty good with all things being considered. It was a little slow but it was well acted and some of the horror set pieces were well done. I will say, the ending was pretty weak and it left me unsatisfied but it wasn't enough to ruin the movie for me.

Not the worst movie I've seen, but not a very entertaining one either. The acting was medicore and the scares were minimal. There were a couple creepy moments with the ghosts but most of the scares were predictable or have been done dozens of times before. I found it hard to route for any of the characters so I didn't really care about what happened to any of them. It's not really a waste of time to watch it but you can find better movies to watch.