Bones And All's Taylor Russell Gushes Over The Deep Feelings Embedded In The Script
In the wide world of movie monsters, films revolving around wendigos — a myth deeply tied to cannibalism — are lacking. The Keri Russell-led film "Antlers" is the most recent movie of note to center directly around the Native American legends. Meanwhile, there's "Raw," a film too disturbing to finish, which also takes inspiration from the same tales of cannibals. That said, while there's a mythology filled to the brim with stories that are heretofore unseen on screen, much of this potential remains unfulfilled. Thankfully, Luis Guadagnino is the next director to take on the subject in his new film, "Bones and All."
However, "Bones and All" isn't the outright horror movie one might expect, and the emotions at play in the narrative are frighteningly intense.
In the film, young Maren (Taylor Russell) is born with the desire to eat people. This causes her father (André Holland) to sequester her from society to protect those around her. But on her 18th birthday, she is finally old enough for him to abandon her and leave her to her own devices. On her path to search for her mother, she meets Lee (Timothée Chalamet) and the two embark on a torrid love affair. And when it comes down to it, "Bones and All" is — at its gooey and bloody heart — a love story.
These deeper elements, which were evident in the script, are exactly what drew in the film's lead actor, Tayor Russell.
It's all about the romance
Horror is at its best when it uses the genre to tell a deeply resonant story. And there is no experience more horrific than coming of age. "Bones and All" has the perfect setup to tell a story for becoming who you are, even if it is using cannibalism to do it. When Maren first meets Lee, she has just realized that she is not the only one of her kind. Referred to as "eaters," both Lee and Maren need to consume human flesh to live. And while salacious, that is not the driving force of the film.
"I remember that I wasn't even thinking about the cannibalism when I read [the script], which may be a strange thing to say, but it's true because the love of the story and also the peculiarity of this person felt so much greater than this picture frame of cannibalism in a way," Taylor Russell admitted on the Variety Awards Circuit podcast. She went on to say: "And I really did feel like the cannibalism was just the punctuation of an emotional undercurrent that was happening between all of these people. Obviously it's very taboo and strange and punk, in a way, to be using a cannibal picture frame and something that I think very few people could do, if not only one person like Luca"
In the film, both Maren and Lee go through all the hallmarks of growing up. They confront the trauma that their parents put them through and learn to accept themselves in the process. And while "Bones and All" ends partly in tragedy, it also tells a meaningful story about adolescence.