Marrowbone

Marrowbone (2017) is about a family who flee from England to America in 1969. A mother settles with her four children in the house where she grew up and dies soon afterwards. The eldest decides to hide it; if they can hold out until the youngest comes of age, nobody can separate them. There is something else in the house too, and the children do not go upstairs. It is Sergio G. Sánchez's first film as director. He had written The Orphanage and The Impossible, both directed by J. A. Bayona, and he wrote this one as well. The structure is a concealed puzzle and the clues are placed inside the image: mirrors are covered, a clock has stopped, certain rooms are never entered. On a second viewing the film is telling something entirely different. George MacKay plays the eldest and Anya Taylor-Joy the girl from the village; she had only recently become known through The Witch. It is a Spanish production shot entirely in English, with locations found in Asturias and used as rural America. It runs 111 minutes. Good for: gothic family horror, twist structures, and period atmosphere. Less good for: the revelation at the end is guessable to anyone who knows films built the same way. The horror elements and the family drama never fully fuse. The middle sags and the romantic subplot is unnecessary.