Marrowbone (2018) Review

Time: 110 Minutes
Age Rating:
Cast:
George MacKay as Jack Marrowbone
Anya Taylor-Joy as Allie
Charlie Heaton as Billy Marrowbone
Mia Goth as Jane Marrowbone
Matthew Stagg as Sam Marrowbone
Kyle Soller as Tom
Nicola Harrison as Rose Marrowbone
Tom Fisher as Simon Fairbairn
Director: Sergio G. Sánchez

Three brothers (George MacKay, Charlie Heaton, Matthew Stagg) and a sister (Mia Goth) have just lost their mother. After her death they fear to be separated, so to protect themselves and prevent this from happening they decide to flee to an abandoned farm, a place that is not what it seems, because it hides a dark secret between its walls.

I had been meaning to watch Marrowbone for a while. It’s a horror movie starring Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Heaton and Mia Goth and is written and directed by the person who wrote The Orphanage (a horror movie I heard is good that I haven’t seen yet). With all that, it really interested me despite some rather mixed reactions to it. Marrowbone is a rather solid horror drama which actually really works quite well, more so when you understand what kind of movie it’s aiming to be, and in that it really succeeds.

Marrowbone is just under 2 hours long and I was pretty interested throughout. I think something that some people will not expect is that it’s more of a drama than a horror and is a bit of a slow burn. I had a feeling going in that it wasn’t going to be a jumpscare fest or a typical horror movie, so I was fine with that. So yeah, go into Marrowbone expecting a drama with horror elements. I will admit that I spoiled a big part of the movie for myself while watching it (looked up ahead at the plot by accident), that being like the last scene of the movie and thus a big twist. I will say however that watching the movie knowing this, I can say that it was done rather well and it didn’t feel overly predictable, yet it makes sense and doesn’t cheat the audience at all. With that said, there are some bits to it that do indicate which direction the movie is moving towards, and some bits that seem completely obvious, so you might be able to figure it out. Also there was a minor aspect of the movie that I found a little hard to buy happening in real life, it’s not completely impossible, just rather unlikely.

The cast is all great in their roles. The main cast is the family, which are made up of George MacKay, Charlie Heaton, Mia Goth and Matthew Stagg, with all of them doing a great job. Their characters aren’t particularly developed (for the most part) but their performances more than made up for it, elevating their parts quite well. Also by the end when certain things are revealed, I think the lack of character depth was okay. There’s also the addition of Anya Taylor-Joy (no stranger to horror movies) who as usual adds quite a lot to every movie that she appears in. She’s very much a supporting character but she’s really good when she’s on screen.

Sergio G. Sanchez is the director and as I said earlier, he’s at least familiar with horror movies and you can feel that watching the movie. It’s quite a good looking movie, the cinematography is good and so is the production design, everything feels appropriately in the 1960s. The scares didn’t really scare me at all, there’s quite a few jumpscares in the movie but it doesn’t really get that annoying. Marrowbone doesn’t really create a lot of tension throughout the movie, though when you consider the story in its entirety, it’s not that big of a problem (unless you’re expecting a pure horror movie). However there is some very effective tension made when it comes to a chimney in the movie.

Marrowbone isn’t quite what I and other people have expected it to be, but it really worked for me. The performances are great and it’s well directed and the story is really solid. I know that some people are rather mixed about it but I really do recommend checking it out sometime if you’re okay with watching a film that has some horror aspects to it.

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