ASH AND BONE *** USA 2022 Dir: Harley Wallen. 97 mins
Harley Wallen (AGRAMON’S GATE) (2019) returns to the Director’s chair for this thrilling backwoods story of love, honesty and family growth. Well one of the main true parts in that last sentence is that Harley Wallen is back to Directing but he also stars in this film with Angelina Danielle Cama and Harley’s real life wife Kaiti Wallen. Meet the Vanderbilt family.
Following a turbulent time in the city with his daughter Cassie (Angelina Danielle Cama), Lucas (Harley Wallen) and Cassie’s stepmom Sarah (Kaiti Wallen) decide that a break from the bright lights will do the family good. Heading back to Lucas’s quiet hometown for some family bonding time they hope to bring Cassie back to Earth and stop her rebellious teenager ways. Once in town Cassie heads out to the local bar making friends with Anna Lambeth (Jamie Bernadette) and Tucker (Mason Heidger). They soon get to chatting and discuss the girls that go missing and the siblings that live at the McKinley house, the same house that the towns folk seem to be scared of. Putting the stories to the side as just another small town urban legend, Cassie goes with her new friends to the McKinley house where they discover a horrifying secret.
Now with their secret potentially to be revealed the McKinley’s must do what they can to stop the truth being put out there and no one is safe, not even the towns visitors – the Vanderbilt’s.
ASH AND BONE focuses a lot on the Vanderbilt’s dysfunctional family unit and the McKinley’s close family which leans this film more on the drama side of things with elements of horror thrown in. It may not be the Wrong Turn type of film you could be looking for but it is worth sticking with to see how the families will each do what they must to keep their families together. The McKinley family of Clete (Jimmy Doom) and May (Erika Hoveland) aren’t folk you would want to spend too much time with that is for sure but they are closer then the Vanderbilt’s. Clete and May have a sibling love that despite their disturbing ways you know that if one of them was in trouble they would have their back.
While the main focus of the film is on Cassie going from rebellious teenager to protecting her family it also makes you want to find out more about the Mckinley’s.
If schedule conflicts didn’t happen we may have seen Scout Taylor Compton playing Anna Lambeth (the role played by Jamie Bernadette) in the film, but as is the case in the film world things change, both are wonderful actresses and I could easily have seen either actress in the role.
Kudos to Jimmy Doom and Erika Hoveland as the McKinley siblings who you look forward to seeing on the screen with the energy they bring to their characters in the film, them seem to relish in them. Angelina Danielle Cama portrays the hard done by teenager Cassie so well that you begin to think she isn’t acting, which is what you want to see from anybody acting, take the role make it yours.
Despite the near 2 hour running time on this indie film, the story by Bret Miller will keep you watching with its equal parts of drama, mystery and of course horror. Not only is the film deserving of the accolades it has reached on the festival circuit, but also congratulations should go to the cast and crew who pushed this project and got it to reach a mainstream audience, a hard job indeed for any independent film.
As of the time of this review, word is spreading in the film industry that a sequel is in the works so it will be interesting to see where they take the story next and if we see the return of any characters.
Review by Peter ‘Witchfinder‘ Hopkins
ASH AND BONE (2022) is out now on DVD and Digital Platforms