Domande frequenti

Following the death of his pregnant wife Jo (Annabeth Gish), best-selling novelist Michael Noonan (Pierce Brosnan) is compelled by strange dreams to move to their lake house near Dark Score Lake, Maine, where he becomes friends with young widow Mattie Devore (Melissa George) and her six year old daughter Kyra (Caitlin Carmichael). Mattie is embroiled in a fierce custody battle with her father-in-law Max Devore (William Schallert), and Mike soon finds himself pulled into it. If that wasn't unnerving enough, Mike becomes aware that his lake house is haunted by two ghosts -- that of his wife and the ghost of blues singer Sarah Tidwell (Anika Noni Rose).

Bag of Bones is a 1998 novel by American horror writer Stephen King. The novel was adapted for the movie by screenwriter Matt Venne.

In the movie, Mike quotes from Thomas Hardy: 'Compared to the dullest human being walking on earth, the most brilliantly-drawn character in any novel is nothing more than a bag of bones.' He then adds: 'The only problem is that sometimes I feel like nothing more than a bag of bones myself...a bag of bones without the energy or talent to do what I thought I was born to do.' It also refers to a message that Mike receives from Jo: 'Lie still bag of bones', which helps him in the end.

If he does, no one has yet spotted it.

The word is "Boo'ya Moon", a reference to an alternate world that figures in another of Stephen King's novels, Lisey's Story (2006). In that story, writer Scott Langdon had a private world called 'Boo'ya Moon' to which he and his brother would escape when they were children.

Mike gets the story from Edgar White, an old timer who used to hang around with Max Devore when they were teens. During the summer of 1939, Max became enamored with Sara Tidwell after seeing her perform at the Dark Score Lake Faire. Max and four of his friends -- Normal Jellison, Fred Dean, Edgar White, and Mike's grandfather Harold -- catch Sara alone in the woods, and Max rapes and murders her. When Max realizes that Sara's daughter Keesha witnessed the rape, he orders that she be drowned in the lake. Just before she dies, Sara places a curse on the five boys, such that they and their sons and their sons' sons will murder their own daughters just as they murdered Keesha.

Mike takes Kyra back to his lake house and runs a warm bath for her. When he thinks of how Jellison and Dean murdered their own daughters by drowning them, he decides to forget the bath and dresses Kyra in a t-shirt instead. After putting her in bed, Mike goes downstairs where the record player has begun playing a Sara Tidwell record. Suddenly, all of the records come flying at Mike, driving him back upstairs and into the bathroom where he has a vision of Max Devore telling him to kill Kyra and reminding him that 'custody has its responsibilities.' Mike hears Jo whispering 'Lie still bag of bones,' and, remembering her note 'side down left' checks his writing. On the left side down, the first letters of the words spell 'Owls above studio.' When one of the 'lie stills' changes to 'lye still', Mike realizes that lye will still Sara's bag of bones. He climbs up to the attic above the studio and finds a bag of lye. Not knowing where Sara and Keesha were buried, he figures that near the 'green lady' is the most likely spot and starts digging. As he expected, he finds their bodies. Sara attempts to stop him, but Jo intervenes and tells her to leave Mike alone. Mike succeeds at spreading the lye over their bones, and Sara fades away. Jo then fades away, too. Mike returns to the house to find Kyra sitting in the bathtub crying. Rogette (Deborah Grover) comes out from behind the door and goes after Mike with a scissors. After a brief struggle, Mike succeeds in stabbing Rogette in the neck. Suddenly, the water in the tub shapes itself into Mattie, who kisses Kyra goodbye and tells her that Mike will take care of her because he's ready now to be a daddy. As the police take away Rogette's body, Kyra and Mike sit on the porch together. Mike suggests that they go paddling in the canoe. In the final scene, Kyra and Mike are shown paddling their canoe out on Dark Score Lake.

Those who have both seen the movie and read the book have pointed out numerous differences. Mentioned most often is the fact that, in the novel, Mike is in his late 30s (Pierce Brosnan was about 57 at the time of filming), Mattie is around 20 (Melissa George was 34), and Kyra is four years old (Caitlin Carmichael was seven). Other examples include the fact that, in the book, Jo dies in a parking lot from a brain aneurysm, it's her brother (not Mike's gay brother) that Jo was spotted with in town. Sarah Tidwell built the lakehouse and lived there. She died about 40 years earlier, and it was her son who was drowned (not her daughter). Sarah does not curse the boys; the drownings are believed to be accidents.