Starring Sarah Alexandra Marks, Louis James, John Rhys-Davies, Tiffany Hannam-Daniels, Tyler Winchcombe, Sophia Eleni, Danny Rahim, Angela Dixon, Sarah T. Cohen. Russell Shaw, Pat Garrett and Marco Antonio Clifton.
Written, directed and produced by Howard J. Ford.
Latitude Films

Olivia Wheeler and a bunch of her friends, including Ethan, Nick and Annabelle, journey to a remote cave in the hope of finding out what happened to Olivia’s missing mother, Lucy. On the way there they pick up a blogger, Ashley, who becomes intrigued by the story and asks to tag along with them so that she can livestream the search. Despite the warnings of Professor Harisson, an academic with in-depth knowledge of the area, and the antisocial reception they receive from the locals, the group presses on, venturing into the depths of the cave system… where monstrosities await…

Howard J. Ford’s movie is tons of fun!

And I don’t think I’m getting into spoiler alert territory by revealing that the movie’s subterranean menace is revealed to be a swarm of ancient tentacled terrors from space, because Howard is happy to divulge the origins of the threat straight away, beginning his movie with a great shot of a meteorite scorching through the atmosphere and slamming into the earth. He follows this up with a scene, still set in prehistoric times, showing us a hapless caveman, who has made the mistake of deciding to dwell in a cavern close to the old meteor impact site, getting nabbed by tentacles! So, with viewers in the know and ready to enjoy the dramatic irony of watching the oblivious characters begin their exploration of the monster-infested cave, Howard delivers a series of sequences where the protagonists put themselves in mortal danger as they crawl through tunnels and split into different groups, ensuring the film becomes a full-on survival-horror-sci-fi flick from this point on.

But before all this happens, in the first act we do get to hang out with the characters for a while. They share lighthearted banter, Olivia’s determination to find out what happened to Lucy is highlighted, and they visit Professor Harisson, played with gusto by genre fave John Rhys-Davies, who advises them to keep away from the cave, but he doesn’t offer strong enough evidence to really deter them. There’s also a pleasing sequence in a pub populated by rude and aggressive regulars, where rumours are told of the strange happenings in the region near the mouth of the cave. This nicely steers the story momentarily into old-school horror film territory, riffing on the Hammer Films-style trope of provincials warning visitors of the legends linked to the locale.

For a modestly budgeted film, the digital visual effects by Giordano Aita and Rafael Emidio are very good, offering up lots of lovely, slimy shots of various octo-beasts crawling around the cave system they dwell in. These quasi-Lovecraftian things digest and absorb their human prey, so some of the creatures partly resemble their victims, whilst others are full-on octopoid monsters! Some of these light-hating critters have bodies of glistening, smooth flesh, but others possess spiky appendages. There are many scenes of tentacles snatching away screaming cavers, ensuring that I was really entertained with BONE KEEPER, and the enjoyment factor was boosted even higher thanks to Professor Harisson’s decision to call the authorities later in the story, setting the scene for a SWAT team vs monsters showdown! Woot!

After watching BONE KEEPER at a cast & crew screening, I started thinking about the vibrant indie genre film scene that has developed in the UK over the last decade or so, and I’d like to talk about it here for a moment…

BONE KEEPER director Howard J. Ford is a prolific independent filmmaker who has been a key part of the fruitful flourishing of lively British horror, thriller and sci-fi movies. His releases include the zombie opus THE DEAD (2010) and its follow-up THE DEAD 2: INDIA (2013), the action-survival-thriller THE LEDGE (2022), and the cyber-horror-thriller DARKGAME (2024). Howard’s movies (plus scores of other UK indie genre films made on small budgets from directors such as Sean Cronin) have helped create the environment wherein a captivating, enthusiastic group of thespians have arisen, pursuing their careers in these Imaginator-Magazine-friendly flicks, often appearing in many of the same films together. So, as a way of providing a snapshot of the current UK genre movie scene, let’s take a look at some of the actors appearing in BONE KEEPER…

Sarah Alexandra Marks plays Olivia, the Final Girl of this story who has the singleminded drive to go back into the cavern of horrors even after some of the group have succeeded in escaping from it. Before BONE KEEPER I’d already seen her in movies such as Howard’s RIVER OF BLOOD (2024), Sean Cronin’s BOGIEVILLE (2024), and also in WITCH (2024), where I thought she played her character in a very sincere and appealing manner, plus she’s been in MONSTER PORTAL (2022), MANOR OF DARKNESS (2025), and in a whole bunch of other genre flicks including SKY MONSTER (2023), Howard’s ESCAPE (2023), KINGDOM OF THE DINOSAURS (2022)… and many more!

Then there’s Louis James, who is Ethan in BONE KEEPER. He is Sarah’s husband in real life, and he’s very prolific too! I enjoyed watching him perform with Sarah in RIVER OF BLOOD, where he really impresses playing a flawed-yet-compelling protagonist. He has been in quite a few of the same movies as his wife (MANOR OF DARKNESS, BOGIEVILLE, ESCAPE, and shorts including 2023’s THE INVISIBLE WOMAN, etc), and he has also appeared in such productions as TALE OF THE FOREST UNICORN (2025), VIPERS (2024), and others. BONE KEEPER’s SWAT officer, Mathews, is played by Russell Shaw. I interviewed Russell in issue 8 of Imaginator, talking to him about the time-travelling wizard-dude he’d enjoyed playing in 2024’s WITCH, a film that, of course, also includes Sarah Alexandra Marks. There are so many career crossovers with these actors! Russell’s other genre credits include Howard’s ESCAPE (a film also starring Sarah Alexandra Marks), THE R.I.P MAN (2025), and Howard’s THE LOCKDOWN HAUNTINGS (2021), a film that includes a detective played by Angela Dixon, who is Olivia’s mum Lucy in BONE KEEPER. I’ve seen Angela play another mother character in the cracking London-set vampire film DRAINED (2024) and recently watched her as Doctor Carol Mills in the vampires-in-a-mobile-home-park film, BOGIEVILLE, which, of course, features Sarah Alexandra Marks and Louis James! Angela is quite a regular in Howard’s movies, notching up appearances in five of them, one of which (THE LOCKDOWN HAUNTINGS) she also wrote.

Tiffany Hannam-Daniels, who plays Annabelle in BONE KEEPER, has also appeared in Howard’s ESCAPE and RIVER OF BLOOD, whilst Tyler Winchcombe, playing Nick in BONE KEEPER, was also in ESCAPE, plus such genre films as BIKINI SHARK (2025) and the human-pig-hybrid B-horror flick PIGLET (2025). So you get the picture, I hope; there’s a talented tribe of independent UK filmmakers and actors out there, who have busily worked on lots and lots of genre gems you need to seek out.

Okay, let’s fully focus back on BONE KEEPER!

The term ‘Lovecraftian’ tends to be overused by reviewers when they are describing tentacled monsters in movies, but in the case of BONE KEEPER the description is quite apt. These creatures are originally from space, with their arrival occurring a long time ago, thus making them an ancient alien species, the kind of organisms often featured in H.P. Lovecraft’s lore. The way the octo-things are physically pliable and varied in body shape also adds a Lovecraftian unknowability to them. The discovery of a central space in the cave that serves as a repository for a goo-coated cluster of remains, including pieces of skeleton, trinkets, and other items once owned by past victims, drives home the notion that the lifeforms dwelling here are entities that are a conglomeration of feral alien instincts merged with some vaguely-remembered assimilated human memories.

I certainly would like to see these monsters return in another film. Bring on a sequel!

A longer version of this BONE KEEPER review is featured in issue 11 of Imaginator Magazine. For more details about the magazine click HERE!