Starring: Ray Wise, Adam Green, Will Barratt, Rileah Vanderbilt, Kane Hodder, Tom Holland, Mick Garris, Sarah Elbert, Alex Pardee.
Director: Adam Green
Writer: Adam Green
Running time: 88 minutes
Rated: Unrated (for language, mild violence)
Reviewed by Michael Juvinall – Horror Society
Digging Up the Marrow IN THEATERS AND AVAILABLE ON VOD AND iTUNES: February 20, 2015
I feel that horror fans are a different breed. We’re not like normal everyday people; we’re not like most
of the rest of the population. We’re fans of the dark, the macabre, the twisted, and the horrific. Unlike most people who run away from the dark and stay in the light, we prefer the dark and don’t mind it at all. We all have wondered if monsters are real at one point or another in our lives, I know I have and still do. I would love for there to be real monsters in the world – and I’m not talking metaphorically. I know there is real evil out there, serial killers, psychopaths, Isis, Al Qaeda and so on. Who hasn’t wanted Bigfoot, Nessie, vampires, werewolves or demons to actually exist…and who says they don’t?
Genre filmmaker Adam Green (Frozen, Hatchet 1-3, Chillerama) is like the rest of us, he wants to know if monsters are real and he intends to find out. What if someone came to you and said they had proof that 
monsters were real and had the evidence to back it up? Would you really want to know? The truth could change everything you ever knew about the world, about religion, about life. That’s the basis for Adam Green’s newest film, Digging Up the Marrow.
Filmmaker Adam Green loves his fans and has a special rapport with them. One day he gets a letter from a fan named William Dekker (Ray Wise) claiming to have proof that monsters really do exist. Green decides this would be a great opportunity to film a documentary in which he meets this guy to see what his story is all about and to see if he really does have proof. Dekker is a retired police detective and says he has been documenting real monsters for the last 25 years. According to Dekker, these “monsters” inhabit a huge metropolis 100 yards underground that he calls the “Marrow.”
Green and his partner/cameraman Will Barratt set out with Dekker to see if they can get any of these
real monsters on film. Dekker explains the entrance to the Marrow is located in a secluded section of a national park outside of Los Angeles and the monsters only come out of the Marrow at night to avoid being seen. Green, Barratt and Dekker camp out at the Marrow entrance and become obsessed trying to document the monsters and to show once and for all they are living among us. He soon discovers that Dekker is not what he seems and he might have gotten in over his head because the monsters don’t want to be discovered and will do whatever it takes to keep their secret world hidden forever.
Digging Up the Marrow is a mock documentary in the found footage vein all played completely straight. The film is highly reminiscent of Clive Barker’s Nightbreed, which is by no means a terrible thing. What I really like about the film is the lines between fiction and reality often become blurred and it gets hard to tell when Green is serious and when he’s hamming it up for the film because that’s the kind of personality he has.
The film was inspired by the art of Alex Pardee and Green designed the film around Pardee’s monstrous creations. There are monsters of all sizes, shapes, and kinds in the film with some being very terrifying looking. There are some genuinely creepy moments in the film that really add an air of authenticity and make it seem like a real documentary. I am no longer a fan of found footage films anymore because I feel the format has really played itself out over the last few years but there are a few exceptions to the rule and Green’s Digging Up the Marrow is one of the few that stick out.
The acting in the film is fabulous. Anytime you have Ray Wise in your project it automatically elevates it to the next level, he is always incredible and this film is no exception. Wise is great in the role of Dekker, trying to make people believe that monsters are real and they should not be toyed with. Green is playing himself in the film as is Will Barratt and a barrage of genre notables that pop up in various cameo roles. The only problem I had with Green’s role is during the first half he doesn’t ever take anything seriously, it’s almost to the point of being a comedy with him and that kind of lessened the scare factor some of the time for me. But when he does take the monsters seriously, its balls out creepy.
Adam Green has always been a fan’s filmmaker; he knows what people want to see and is always on the cutting edge of the genre. Digging Up the Marrow is just another example of Green being on the cutting edge of horror. No, found footage is nothing new but Green manages to make this film feel fresh with the subject matter and the execution. If you’re looking for a film that gets way more right than wrong and still manages to be creepy and effective than definitely give Digging Up the Marrow a look.
3 ½ out of 5 Pentagrams!
Watch the trailer here,
