Marrowbone (2018)

People are voting emotionally.

Must See Movie...

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

What a way to waste such amazing performances (or in some cases, actors that just didn't have enough to perform). The movie isn't dumb, but the execution of what they do in it has been done before, and way better. We follow a family. Well, that's what the trailer promised us. But in reality, is the big brother that brings the whole story together. Anya Tayler is disgracefully wasted by being just one more of the cast and not a prominent part (Have these writers seen The Witch?). The movie has one great sequence at the start with the family working together and a nice score. After that is boring "character stuff" that, with the ending, is just a waste of time, really, and doesn't earn a second viewing. Being boring in a horror movie is one thing... but just to be clever? You're wasting my time.

'The Secret Of Marrowbone (2018)' is full of good ideas, most of which are unfortunately executed slightly poorly. It isn't until the flick's finale that any of these ideas conflate into something worthwhile, something that provokes a genuine - and even guttural - reaction when it occurs, but even this is marred by a certain feeling of unoriginality, if not quite predictability, and an incredibly silly conceit, the absurdity of which is especially evident in retrospect and takes away from the initial proper horror of certain elements involving it. The eponymous 'secret' also falls apart slightly because of its representation and, to a degree, the execution of its reveal, as opposed to its concept or even necessarily its wider implications. To be fair, it does liven up proceedings - essentially paying you back for your previous 'good faith' during the piece's duller moments. It adds another layer to a picture that constantly toes the line of being too generic to stand apart from the crowd, giving it that special something to compound its 'worth' and make it feel like it was, at least, worth your time. Ironically, it makes it seem like it's trying to ape a certain subsection of its genre (one filled with many better, and inevitably more original, films) in the process, though. Some moments of the feature also fail to live up to scrutiny in retrospect and the final message is mixed, to say the least, even if the movie would have you believe it is an entirely positive one. Still, at least the picture is interesting. 6/10

The Secret Of Marrowbone: A family flees to the US leaving behind a dark past. They arrive at Marrowbone, the isolated ancestral home of the mother. The mother dies shortly afterwards and her death must be kept secret until Jack (George MacKay) is 21 or the family will be split up. Sam (Matthew Stagg) who is 8, sees ghosts, Billy (Charlie Heaton) 17, undertakes dangerous tasks and Jane (Mia Goth) 16 mediates between Jack and Billy on what to do as well as tutoring Sam; Jack goes to the local town for supplies.There are several secrets of Marrowbone, the past the family fled, the walled up room in the attic, the stain on the ceiling, the strange noises. The house itself is a star of this Gothic Horror/Mystery, in a state of partial dereliction, creaky boards, rats and raccoons in the walls. A strange mansion which was just made to contain dark secrets. The mirrors are covered so that Sam won't see ghosts, they have a makeshift hide to which they retreat when ghosts appear. Jack has fallen in love with Allie (Anya Taylor-Joy) a librarian who lives on a nearby farm. A local lawyer, Tom (Kyle Soller) is also interested in Allie and things get complicated as he handles the family's legal affairs.Some great shots especially of Billy on the roof and of the eerie interior of the house, filmed largely in washed out tones for internal shots. A complicated script by director Sergio G. Sánchez with some flashbacks and plot twists demands careful attention but in the end supplies a coherent narrative. The Secret Of Marrowbone mixes several Horror styles and tropes and is up to the standard of The Orphanage, also written bt Sánchez. 8.5/10

A mother and three children flee an abusive patriarch and move to a remote rural home. While there, strange events begin to occur while dark secrets seem to hover in the background.This gothic film is one which I felt improved as it went on. By the finale, once the twist ending had slotted into place, it made you reconsider what you had just seen and realise that the fabric of the narrative was more complex and layered than previously realised. It later becomes apparent that the narrative is very fragmented and that the story is in a large part one from the perspective of the unreliable narrator. I like movies like this, which can be regarded as puzzles, with pieces not yet in place, or completely missing. Consequently, The Secret of Marrowbone is a very worthwhile film if you appreciate this kind of thing too.