Digging Up The Marrow
I
hate found footage movies. The moment a film presents itself as “found
footage”, the inevitable problems with filming come up and blast you in
the face. Shaky came! Poor lighting! Lack of focus! And all of this has
to fit into a narrative that tells a story- Blair Witch Project is still
the best example of this technique, but I don’t really enjoy that movie
all that much. It makes me dizzy, the acting is often wooden, and the
“story” is a little scattered. So I’ve never seen a “found footage”
movie that I’ve entirely enjoyed. And every “trick” in a film like that
has been done to death. We’ve even had a number of sequels made of the
movies using the same technique to the point where the technique has
been downright abandoned. ([.REC]?)
Adam
Green is one of my favorite directors, though. And if he’s involved
with a project I will undoubtedly give it a whirl and see where it takes
me. And “Digging Up The Marrow” definitely took me places, one of them
being a place deep beneath the earth where real monsters exist and live
and hide from the rest of the world. The basic premise of the film is
that this is a documentary and Adam Green plays himself and follows a
“monster hunter” on his journey to expose the “Marrow” within which a
society of monsters live. It’s not a new concept- the monsters are
inspired by artist Alex Pardee and the whole project feels a little
tertiary with all the other projects that Green has been working on
since creating Ariesscope Pictures back in the late 90’s. The Society of
Monsters is something we’ve seen a bunch of times before- Monsters Inc,
Nightbreed, Etc. etc., so why not a “Found footage” approach to telling
that kind of a story? It’d work about as well as a bunch of other
recent entries where they watch ghosts, explore the entrance to hell, or
follow Bigfoot. And Adam Green knows this- in fact, he’s so aware of it
that we see his film crew and friends arguing with him about it. He
even argues that the movie itself is NOT a found footage film”.
The
film is fully aware of the pitfalls in the “found footage” documentary
approach and it delivers all of those pitfalls in a way that draws the
audience in and becomes a better story for it. Shitty lighting? Check.
Night Vision looks like green blobby excrement on a budget? Big check
right there, sure. Unreliable narration? You bet your sweet ass. This
movie takes the genre and twists it in on itself- perhaps a little too
self aware at times, the film absolutely knows what kind of audience
it’s likely to get and plays right to them. Featuring cameos from Mick
Garris, Kane Hodder, and an odd assortment of genre favorites, Adam
Green delivers a decent little project that explores some interesting
ground.
The creature
designs are amazing… we see sketches of some monsters that will never
appear, all the work of artist Alex Pardee and the film is largely based
on his art show “Digging up the Marrow” (the film sees a strong
collaborative effort between Green and the original artist). No effect
is wasted and we absolutely get to see the creepy-crawlies of the Marrow
in all their splendid glory. One of them, in particular, kind of
haunted me for a long while after the film was over and left me all
giggles with excitement and shibbery awesomeness.
But
while it’s good, it just falls a little short of “Great” and I’m still
not a fan of the sub-sub-genre that’s become more and more popular as of
late. While it’s amusing to hear the producers, editor, and camera
operator complain about the lack of light or the shitty conditions and
quality of “found footage”, it does nothing to really IMPROVE those
conditions. Adam Green as himself comes across as a bit naïve and
childish at times and it makes him a compelling protagonist. But it also
may be a bit of an error in blurring that line between fantasy and
fiction. It does make it hard to take him seriously at times. He
portrayal of Adam Green the character is straight out of Holliston, of
course- but that just makes the line all the more odd because he’s
obviously playing a caricature in the series.
3.5 out of 5.
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