Digging Up the Marrow Review

In order to enjoy Digging Up the Marrow, you need to know a few things going into it. First, it's a mockumentary, second it's also part found footage, and finally, it's an Adam Green movie. In fact, it's a bit of an Adam Green movie about how in love with himself Adam Green is. If none of those things bother you, you're good to go. Personally, I don't kneel at the altar of Adam Green, but I do enjoy his work most of the time, to some degree or another. I didn't know a ton about Digging Up the Marrow going in, but I knew it was a monster movie and that's generally enough to get me interested. As it turned out, I had a good bit of fun with this one, even if the ride to the good stuff was a bit of a tedious one.

Marrow begins with Adam Green explaining that he gets a lot of fan mail, including art, letters, underwear, etc. One fan in particular, William Dekker, had been sending him photos, letters, and even a full notebook of what he says is proof that monsters really exist. After meeting with Dekker, Adam decides to begin filming his story and investigating his claims about the creatures who live underground, in what he refers to as "The Marrow".

Initially, I was a little turned off by this one. It begins with footage from a horror convention, with several familiar faces talking about monsters, and whether they believe in them or not. The focus then changes to Adam Green, and stays there for a while. He talks about himself, how many fans he has, etc. and to be honest, I kept expecting him to just blow himself on camera. Eventually the movie does pick back up though, as we meet Dekker, who was played by the brilliant Ray Wise. I'm a big fan of his, but the problem here is that he's acting off a script Adam Green wrote, and it's obvious. Essentially other than Wise, everybody else in the movie plays themselves, to varying degree of annoyance.

The real reason to watch Digging Up the Marrow is the monsters. It's a monster movie, after all. It's here that I really began to get into the movie. At first things are hinted at, you get a shadowy figure barely moving, things like that. Eventually though, the monsters do emerge from the Marrow, and while we only get semi-decent looks at a handful of them, they're some of the most original, creepy designs I've seen since Nightbreed. The movie shows just enough for you to get an idea as to what they look like, but being the monster lover that I am, I wanted more, of course. That said, I was really thankful that being that this was a found footage type of movie, we didn't just get a lot of noises and a blurry quick close-up at the very end.

While the movie does a good enough job of giving you an idea as to what the creatures look like, it wasn't until I watched the 30 minute "Making of the Marrow" documentary included on the dvd that I really got an appreciation of these monsters. It's explained that artist Alex Pardee approached Adam Green at a horror convention and handed him a pamphlet from one of his art galleries that was full of monsters. The pamphlet not only included art, but some backstory, which described The Marrow. After reading it, Adam got the idea for the movie, and from that Digging Up the Marrow was created. Alex's work is absolutely fantastic, after watching the movie and doc, I looked him up online, and have liked/subscribed/followed him on just about everything I can. His style is different from just about anything else out there, his designs are amazingly strange, and I immediately fell in love with them.

Digging Up the Marrow takes a while to get to the good stuff, but when it gets there, there's plenty to take away from it. The monsters all look great, there's a few good jump scares, some fun cameos, and if you're a documentary fan like me, the mockumentary style makes it fun to watch. If you're not a fan, or are one of those people who find Adam Green to be untolerable, you definitely won't be changing your mind with this one. If you can get past him though, Marrow is an entertaining monster movie, with original creatures, great practical effects, and a premise that has tons of potential. After watching the documentary on the making of the creatures, I'm really hoping to see the residents of the Marrow explored even further, be it in another film or some other form.