Thanks
to the found footage sub-genre, the horror movie community hardly knows what to
do when the real thing comes along. At least that it sort of the premise of the
new meta-meta mock-and-shock doc from the team behind the Holliston television series. Director Adam Green, playing himself
and riffing off his Holliston persona,
starts to suspect monsters are real, so naturally he sets out to film them in Digging Up the Marrow (trailer here), which launches
on VOD and opens in select theaters this Friday.
Green
really does get a great deal of intricately constructed fan fiction sent to
him, in some cases much like the incredibly detailed but presumably barking mad
missive that starts his on-camera excursion down the rabbit hole. A retired
Boston cop named William Decker claims a secret band of the freakishly deformed
live in a subterranean world he calls the Marrow. The entrances are closely
guarded, but he has discovered one, logically located in an out of the way
cemetery. Thus begins a series of futile stakeouts, with his reluctant
cinematographer Will Barratt (played by cinematographer Will Barratt) in tow.
Of
course, just when Green decides Decker is a complete nut leading them on a wild
goose chase, they finally see something that changes everything. However, they
still have to convince their colleagues to take their footage seriously. Green’s
real life editor Josh Ethier (who also played the killer lumberjack-alien in
Joe Begos’ Almost Human) is
particularly skeptical, but he is perfectly willing to cut Green’s stolen
shots. “It’s not found footage, it’s . . . footage” he insists.
Frankly,
this is one of the best postmodern self-referential genre films since Wes
Craven turned his signature franchise on its head with New Nightmare. It is light-years better than the Vicious Brothers’ knowing
but disappointingly flat Grave Encounters 2. While there are plenty of creepy moments, the film is more about
exploring how the horror industry and sub-culture would respond when confronted
with possible evidence that maybe some of this stuff might just be real.
In
a pleasant turn of events, Ethier and Hatchet
star Kane Hodder (best known for his stint as Jason in the old school Friday the 13th films) are
totally hilarious playing off each other and Green. They give the film a major
energy boost during their scenes. Green himself is a good sport as the straight
man for their quips and all of Decker’s macabre madness, whereas Ray Wise, the
only cast member assuming a fictional personal, is reliably looney as the unreliable
Decker.
Inspired
by the Alex Pardee’s monster art, Marrow is
a strong creature feature that might even be more interesting when it operates
in the ostensibly real world. Sadly, the film also marks the last screen
appearance of Green’s late series co-star Dave Brockie. Green also was
disciplined enough as a director to keep the scenes of actress Rileah
Vanderbilt playing his actress-wife Rileah, even though she would now have to
play his ex-wife should there ever be a sequel.
