THE SECRET OF MARROWBONE (2017) aka MARROWBONE

Directed by Sergio G. Sánchez, Starring: George MacKay, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Heaton.   Drama, Horror, Spain, 2017, 110mins, Cert 15.

Making his feature film debut ,Sergio G. Sánchez, the writer of THE ORPHANAGE, this time directs his own screenplay and delivers a beautifully melancholic tale of family secrets and the horrors that unfold from them. There’s more than a touch of Poe in the gothic proceedings, and a couple of genuinely chill-inducing moments of fright which are well-earned.

It’s 1969. Eldest son Jack (George MacKay), is entrusted with the welfare of his siblings, and instructed by his mother on her rasping deathbed to maintain the pretence of her still being alive until his 21^st birthday so he can become their legal guardian. Having left England for America, and having changed their name to that of their mother's childhood family home, ‘Marrowbone’, for a time their life seems relatively peaceful. However, a single rifle shot pierces the quietness, and signals a sinister turn of events that will irreparably scar Jack both psychically and mentally.

There’s a measured assurance in Sánchez’s direction, an instinctual sense of allowing the narrative to unfurl naturally, and giving the impressive young cast time to breathe life into their characters. Shrewd casting allows the film’s publicists to quote both Netflix’s STRANGER THINGS with Charlie Heaton playing Jack’s slightly younger brother Billy, and art house horror hit THE VVITCH by way of Anya Taylor-Joy as the local town librarian Allie, who makes quite an impression on the family, and especially on Jack. All the cast perform admirably, but George MacKay rightly takes centre stage as the conflicted young man burdened with responsibility, and wrestling with all-consuming guilt.

Visually, the widescreen canvas makes the most of the natural light and the dramatic Spanish vistas, shot in Asturias and Catalonia, provide an evocative and ethereal quality.

Sánchez pulls off a sleight of hand trick a third of the way into the film which reaps rich dividends in the final act, although not in a gimmicky M. Night Shyamalan way whereby the twist often appears as the raison d'être. By which point, most filmmakers would happily cut here, satisfied with their illusion, but Sánchez aims higher, and succeeds in presenting us with a bittersweet coda which is both heart-warming and poetically disturbing.

**** (out of 5*)

Paul Worts