The Secret of Marrowbone (2018)

"Atmospheric High Class EuroHorror"

Oh yes, this may be set in America and feature American and British actors, but a quick look at the credits and it becomes obvious that THE SECRET OF MARROWBONE is a Spanish production, and a very good one indeed. After a brief theatrical run earlier this year eOne are now bringing MARROWBONE (the film's US title) out on DVD and Download in the UK.

Rural America in the late 1960s. The Fairbairn family arrive from England, take up residence in a crumbling manor house some distance from the nearest town, and change their surname to Marrowbone. Mother has a terminal disease and father is nowhere to be seen, and soon the four Marrowbone children are on their own. Or are they? Who's that watching the house? And what's making those sounds in the attic?

Starting off bit like one of those old-fashioned children's serials the BBC used to show at Sunday teatime, THE SECRET OF MARROWBONE doesn't take long in getting to the scary stuff, providing some really splendid shivers and a climax that will have any fan of classic BritHorror nodding with pleasure. 

The film was written and directed by Sergio Sanchez. He also wrote 2007's THE ORPHANAGE and quite a few of the same crew are involved here (ORPHANAGE director J A Bayona is executive producer). The young cast is excellent, with special mention going to George Mackay as oldest child Jack, and Anya Taylor-Joy and Mia Goth (horror & weird cinema veterans both) as Jack's love interest and sister respectively.

eOne's DVD comes with 27 minutes of extended and deleted scenes, plus a short VFX clip that's well worth a look to see just how much work went into transforming the Spanish locations into American-looking ones. 

One of my favourite films of 2018, THE SECRET OF MARROWBONE didn't get the press coverage it deserved on its initial release. Hopefully it will turn out to be one of those cult sleepers that more and more will discover as the years go on. Don't miss out on it. 

Sergio G Sanchez's THE SECRET OF MARROWBONE is out on DVD from Monday 19th of November 2018. It's already out on download.