[FrightFest Glasgow '26] FILM REVIEW: Bone Keeper

Bone Keeper - FrightFest Glasgow World Premiere Review

Director: Howard J. Ford

Starring: Sarah Alexander Marks, John Rhys-Davies, Louis James, Sophia Eleni, Danny Rahim

Written by: Howard J. Ford

Produced by: Howard J. Ford

Original Score by: David Engellau

Synopsis:

Six young friends investigate missing persons cases in a remote cave system, unaware they're being stalked by an ancient creature lurking in the depths.

Thoughts:

What is it with people in horror movies wanting to explore caves? Look, I get it on a film level; put a group of people in a difficult situation, give them the hope of escape, add in a monster or two to spice it up. Simple. Every film where people explore caves for fun, there’s always the one character that’s like “I’m not sure about this”, LISTEN CLAP TO CLAP THEM CLAP. Haunted houses I get. Cabins in the Woods I get. But spelunking? It’s like walking into a fire and wondering why you got burnt...and also eaten by a monster.

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL

I’ll admit that in the past, I haven’t been a fan of director Howard J Ford’s work. 'The Ledge' (2022) had a great premise but failed to deliver and 'Darkgame' (2024) might have been the worst film I saw that year. Thankfully, with 'Bone Keeper', Ford has made some improvements. It is a simple premise; group of friends want to investigate some caves to solve some missing people reports. Little do they know, there’s a squidly diddly monster in the caves that likes to keep bones. It’s a creature feature, mixing films like 'The Descent' and 'The Beast', and at times the film can be a lot of fun...if you don’t focus on the acting.

It’s one thing I’ve noticed about Ford’s work in the past, that he doesn’t know how to make scenes feel natural with his actors. The scenes lack any sort of intimacy and often feel flat and sterile. I would normally blame the actors, but you can see that they’re trying their best in every scene, but whether it’s the framing or the lighting or the script itself, is dragging the actors down to mediocrity. It was fun seeing John Rhys-Davies though, that man could read the phone book and I’d still love it. 

Once the horror in the caves gets going, it does become a lot more fun to watch. The special effects are impressive at times, thanks to the dark environments, you never get any bad lingering shots of the monster. The kills are fun and pulls every sort of trick you expect from a cave dwelling creature feature. The one thing I think the film didn’t need, was a set up for the monster coming from space. Sometimes no explanation is scarier. A monster in a cave is scary enough, but that’s more of a personal thing for me (I also hate the beginning of The Thing, when we see it’s from space.) 

LISTEN TO THE DISSECTION PODCAST

There’s definitely enough creature feature here to please the horror bargain bin DVD crowd, but for me, a lot of the scenes that don’t involve the monster just feel flat and awkward. Much like his 2022 effort, 'The Ledge', director Howard J Ford shows that he’s great at coming up with interesting enough premises for films, but just can't deliver with the final product. 

Verdict: ⭐️⭐️

-Adam Neeson

'Bone Keeper' received its World Premiere at FrightFest Glasgow '26 on March 7th