As director J.A. Bayona levels up to Hollywood big budgets with the Jurassic World sequel, his long-time creative compadre takes a seat in the feature-film director’s chair for the first time. Unsurprisingly, writer Sergio G. Sánchez’s movie feels very close to one of Bayona’s own, which Sánchez wrote — namely psycho-horror The Orphanage. Although, perhaps too close.
Not on the surface, at least. Unlike the modern-day Spain-based The Orphanage, The Secret Of Marrowbone is an English-language film with a period setting, featuring a familiar cast. No doubt Stranger Things fans will have their attention hooked by the presence of Charlie Heaton and those who enjoyed the unsettling thrills of The Witch will certainly appreciate Anya Taylor-Joy’s involvement as love interest Allie.
If you’ve seen The Orphanage it will all feel overly familiar.
However, the narrative focus is very much on George MacKay’s Jack, the eldest brother burdened both by his particular role in the Marrowbone family’s traumatic recent past and his desperate resolution to keep the clan together, forever, whatever the cost. It’s smart casting — a fine actor, MacKay duly grounds the film with palpable sensitivity, something the movie honestly needs to counteract an overbearing and treacly orchestral score and, surprisingly for Sánchez, some screenwriting bum notes.
Sánchez includes some effective, jumpy set-pieces, including a neat one set around an evening game of Risk, during which little Sam is sent out to retrieve a pair of tossed dice which have rolled off into the threatening gloom of the stairwell. He also keeps the central mystery layered and intriguing. What’s that stain on the ceiling? Why has Jack covered up or hidden all the mirrors? Who bricked up the attic? Why do his siblings never leave the house? What exactly happened during the six-month leap between the prologue and the main bulk of the story?
The problem is, if you’ve seen The Orphanage — set in another creepy new home which holds a macabre secret in its darkest corner — it will all feel overly familiar, and there’s a good chance you’ll figure it out long before the big reveal comes. Especially as the film also echoes a couple of other high-profile thrillers from the past few decades (to name them would be to risk dropping a spoiler), which similarly reside on the blurred borderline between the supernatural and the psychological. It doesn’t help, either, that when you finally find out what is going bump in the Marrowbones’ night, you’re more likely to roll your eyes than gasp in astonishment.
