The scariest figure of the year even scares the cannibal king Hannibal Lecter

The film year 2022 has produced a lot of impressive horror films for horror fans with films like Barbarian, Nope, The Black Phone and Terrifier 2. The crown of scariest figure of 2022which crawls under the skin in order to nest there permanently, however, clearly picked up an at first glance inconspicuous character from Bones and All.

Minor spoilers for the plot of Bones and All follow, but the ending will not be revealed.

Watch a German trailer for Bones and All here:

The horror of Bones and All gleefully slurps the fear out of our bone marrow

As a cannibal romance, Bones and All is one in itself cinematic borderline experience. Disturbing and beautiful at the same time, the story demands a lot from us. Finally, on the fringes of society, young Maren (Taylor Russell), with the help of like-minded Lee (Timothée Chalamet), attempts nothing less than to understand her hunger for human flesh. A crass topic as a tour-de-force, in which the camera is not afraid of blood and nauseating depictions of violence.

The two young stars deliver an impressive performance in Luca Guadagnino’s film. The actor that haunts you (mentally) home, though, is Mark Rylance. The British actor mimes in Bones and All den
aging cannibal Sully, who becomes Maren’s culinary mentor for a short time. In the further course of the film, however, there are moments that make the bloody road trip of the two young cannibals seem almost harmless.

Sully comes across as the friendly uncle next door before he shows his true colors

It is a creeping shudder, which Mark Rylance evokes in the (not-only) horror film Bones and All. Because the concern about his cranky Sully, whom Maren meets for the first time alone at night at a bus stop, is slowly growing with relish.

Sully “sniffs” the like-minded teenager, but quickly makes it clear that she has nothing to fear from him. Because cannibals don’t eat cannibals. The fact that she accompanies him home is still with you bad feeling tied together. But we suppress that first because this older gentleman with the funny name is clearly a sad outsider. What can hide behind the unfashionable fishing vest, the thin braid and the feather on the hat?

Quite a lot, as it turns out. Because at the latest when we find Sully munching, her mouth smeared with blood, over the corpse of a plump elderly woman, she burns herself Horror scene indelibly in memory. The cannibal’s deeds speak louder than his soft, whispering voice, which at this moment at the latest changes from gentle to uncanny.

The long rope that Sully weaves together from the hair of his victims also gives a deep insight. Here someone is not the (as far as possible) harmless cannibal who finds his own hunger for human flesh uncomfortable. This is the behavior of a psychotic serial killer hiding his true motives.

Sullys exquisite friendliness forces Maren to treat him with courtesy. Even if the panic in their eyes speaks a different language. The feeling of salvation only sets in when the youngster finally runs away from him. Nevertheless, the goosebumps linger on when the bus passes Sully’s abandoned form one last time.

So long that it’s not until we meet again that we realize that Mark Rylance’s performance never quite let us go. Only towards the end of the film does Sully’s mask finally slip and prove that sometimes you should trust your first instinct.

Why Mark Rylance’s performance in Bones and All puts even Hannibal Lecter to shame

The 2016 Oscar winner for Bridge of Spies – The Negotiator Mark Rylance has many iconic roles made their own. In 2022 alone, alongside his gluttonous Sully in Bones and All, he also impressively played the mysterious gangster tailor Leonard in The Outfit and the quirky amateur golfer Maurice in The Fantastic Flitcrofts. And who could forget him as a fleeting Ready Player One creator or BFG? Only the horror genre hadn’t discovered him yet.

Mark Rylance’s performances are notable for not needing volume to resonate. Most of the time, his characters fall somewhere on the spectrum between quiet, socially shy, and odd. Which gives his cannibalistic character greater impact. A new taste note.

Simply by Mark Rylance his shy presence turned into menace. He would be a slightly crazy but harmless uncle – if he didn’t eat people and eventually even became a danger to other cannibals.

Sully from Bones and All is no Hannibal Lecter, behind whose cultivated facade Anthony Hopkins only occasionally flashed the monster. Luckily. Mark Rylance’s horror is more like a constant itch under the skin that’s always there without being able to quite put your finger on it. An uncomfortable feeling that leaves you in constant uncertainty until you realize the grisly truth.

A man-eating oddball who deserves his own throne among our world’s movie cannibals. In any case, in 2022 there will be no one who can hold a candle to him when it comes to horror.

Bones and All podcast with Timothée Chalamet and Taylor Russell

In the FILMSTARTS podcast on the screen love, moderator Pascal talks to the FILMSTARTS editors Björn and Nina about Bones And All. Luca Guadagnino’s new film is about identity, love, being an outsider and… cannibalism. You can find out how we liked the very unusual road movie with Timothee Chalamet and Taylor Russell in the podcast.

Screen love https://open.spotify.com/show/7iD6PTozMfdxm4W5K8AQfw is the weekly cinema and film podcast from our colleagues at FILMSTARTS.

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Have you seen Bones and All and been followed by Mark Rylance’s Sully afterwards?