Bones and All

Luca Guadagnino transforms Camille DeAngelis's 2015 novel into a visceral road movie that reimagines the coming-of-age story through the lens of body horror. Set against the decaying backdrop of the 1980s American Midwest, the film follows Maren Yearly, a young woman who has spent her life moving from town to town after being abandoned by her father at age five.

Maren carries a terrifying secret: she belongs to a group known as "new people," individuals born with an insatiable biological compulsion to consume human flesh. Without this meat, they suffer violent illness and eventual death. Her solitary existence ends when a mysterious phone call from her father urges her to find her mother, the only other person who might understand her plight. [edit]

Maren leaves her small Ohio hometown hitching rides and surviving on the fringes of society until she encounters Lee, a charismatic drifter traveling in a beat-up pickup truck. Lee reveals he too is one of the "new people" but maintains a strict code: they must never harm anyone they care about or know personally. Their connection forms instantly, forged in shared alienation and mutual survival. As they travel together across the heartland, their relationship deepens into a passionate romance that offers solace in a world that would destroy them if their secret were exposed.

Their odyssey takes them through surreal landscapes including a carnival run by the enigmatic Sully, a man who claims to have known Maren's mother. Sully becomes a mentor figure, teaching them how to hunt sustainably and survive in the shadows while introducing them to a loose, nomadic hierarchy of other cannibals. The central conflict intensifies as Maren and Lee struggle to reconcile their love for one another with the terrifying reality of their biology. They bond over their shared alienation, finding comfort in each other's company while navigating a hostile environment where being different means living in the margins.

Maren's past eventually catches up with her as the moral weight of their existence begins to fracture their relationship. They are forced to confront the question of whether love can truly conquer such a primal, destructive instinct or if their fate is sealed by the very nature of what they are. The narrative builds toward a climax where the couple must make impossible choices about their future, their safety, and the cost of staying together in a world that demands they remain apart. Their journey highlights themes of addiction, the search for identity, and the desperate human need for connection in a society that refuses to accept them.[edit]