[FrightFest 2025] FILM REVIEW: 213 Bones

213 Bones - FrightFest UK Premiere Review

Director: Jeffrey Primm

Starring: Colin Egglesfield, Francesca Barker McCormick, Ernest Walker, Sarah Brooks, Dean Cameron

Written by: Jeffrey Primm, Dominic Arcelin

Produced by: John Michaels, Tyler John Olsen

Cinematography by: Andrew Russo

Original Score by: Ram Khat

Synopsis:

College students are brutally murdered by a gruesomely masked attacker. It is left to Sherriff Bracco, Laurie the County Coroner and their teacher, Kelly, to find out who the real bone crunching murderer is.

Thoughts:

Slashers come in all different kinds of shapes and sizes, traversing various sub genres of horror, but one of the most popular variations which peaked in the 90s was the "whodunit" slasher. In the wake of the massive success of 'Scream' in 1996, there was an explosion of these types of films with the likes of 'I Know What You Did Last Summer' and 'Urban Legend' being two of the biggest examples. The key to their success was keeping audiences guessing who the killer hidden behind a mask was until the final confrontation. '213 Bones' sees Director/Co-Writer Jeffrey Primm pay homage to that era with his take on that sub-genre. 

Set in 1993 on the campus of Bristol Falls college, the film sees a classroom of forensic anthropology students being targeted by a masked killer while working on a class project. This sets them off in a race against time to find out who the killer is before they find themselves as the next corpse on the slab. 

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When paying homage to a particular subsection of a genre there can be a very fine line between reverence and pastiche bordering on parody. When it comes to '213 Bones' it unfortunately seems to sway more towards the latter. Following the basic structure of this kind of slasher that we've seen time and time again, we are presented with a series of characters (with varying degrees of depth) who for the most part are lambs being led to their slaughter for our entertainment. This is perfectly fine for setup but the problem is that it does nothing with it. 'Scream' took the (at that point tired) slasher and freshened it up with Meta commentary on the genre but here it is just your bog standard whodunnit without much to 

say. 

It all stems from the script which contains some severely underwritten characters. In the first act it feels like you are watching it with a clipboard in your hand as you are introduced to the students. There's the nerd, the stoner, the rebellious trouble maker and even an 80s obsessive. And for some strange reason they all act more like teenagers than college students. For the most part their dialogue is nothing more than exposition that tells us nothing about the characters outside of their tropes. Anytime they talk about their personal lives there is a strange shift away from the grunge/sub-pop rock soundtrack (which works well at immersing the audience in the early 90s time period) to a mawkish score that feels like it was lifted straight from a soap opera. This has a knock on effect on the performances which are perfectly fine but there is nothing in the material for the actors to enhance their characters. 

The main draw to these kinds of films lies in trying to figure out who the killer is. Initially Primm does a good job at keeping the audience guessing by throwing in lots of different visual references for red herrings and the film becomes loaded with so many different characters it is sometimes difficult to remember them and their profile in relation to the murders. This is almost in vain as the script spells out who the killer is very early on, practically by almost directly pointing out who the killer is which dispels any sort of mystery in the film. 

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Even with this discovery, fans of the genre usually get a kick out of the kills. The problem here though is that they lack invention and an overreliance on CGI effects that makes them feel weightless as the cast of characters are dispatched one by one in a fairly dull manner. Having said that, the look of the killer stands out with the mask being akin to the Moai of Easter Island, with red hair flowing down it which is quite creepy in and of itself. 

When it comes to '213 Bones' the overriding problem is that there is no meat or substance to it. In its simplest form it is a throwback to the rejuvenated boom of 90s slashers but it is one that has nothing to say. With a weak script the film feels like it is going through the motions from one kill to the next before reaching a predictable conclusion. It does nothing to stand out, making it feel pretty unremarkable. 

Verdict: ⭐️⭐️

-Joseph McElroy

'213 Bones' received its UK Premiere at FrightFest '25 on August 24th