PLOT: A true crime podcaster is contacted by a mysterious “longtime listener” who seems to have inside information about the recent disappearance of four influencers.
REVIEW: Director Mitch McLeod’s horror film Marrow begins with text on-screen informing us that “From May 7, 2000 to February 3, 2002, a Texas resident, pen name Distal Marrow, was repeatedly contacted via email by an individual or individuals under the moniker NOOSPLEHDEENI (I NEED HELP SOON). What follows is inspired by these events.” The movie also ends with a dedication: “In Loving Memory of James ‘Distal Marrow’ Foster.” A quick online search doesn’t turn up any further information about the NOOSPLEHDEENI situation, but James Foster was indeed a real person who wrote under the pen name Distal Marrow, and McLeod has even described him as his mentor.
Marrow, which McLeod wrote alongside his wife Jessica Dawn Willis and author Preston Fassel, pays tribute to the late James Foster by naming the Texas-based lead character, played by Willis, Jamie Foster. Jamie, who uses the name Distal Marrow online, is host of the once-popular true crime podcast Embracing the Paradox (it was the #6 podcast online two years ago) that has recently been losing listeners because the focus has shifted from serial killers to cryptids. Jamie’s aunt / benefactor Camilla (genre icon Danielle Harris) has just ranted at her about her declining popularity when she’s contacted by a mysterious longtime listener called NOOSPLEHDEENI, who points out an interesting situation to her: four Texas-based influencers have recently gone missing after first being tormented by… something. They told their followers that they had been seeing and hearing things that would make people think they’re crazy, and then they vanished.
Jamie does a show on the case, tossing out the possible title The Texas Influencer Massacre… but NOOSPLEHDEENI stays in contact, and their interactions get increasingly creepy. This mysterious caller has too much information about the case. They have video of a missing woman being held captive. They imply that Jamie is being watched… which, given that she lives in an isolated cabin surrounded by dark forest, is quite possible.
Jamie gets calls from NOOSPLEHDEENI and receives visits from the likes of Camilla, a pair of authority figures, and doctor-turned-doomsayer Jonathan Myers (the great Michael Ironside), but Marrow is a one-woman show for portions of its 94-minute running time, and Willis does a great job carrying the film on her shoulders. Jamie is an interesting character, who seems vulnerable but also doesn’t hesitate to pull out a gun when she feels threatened. Her interest in true crime even inspired her to apply to the FBI at one point in her life, but now she’s trying to distance herself from having to research killers all the time. That’s why she was turning to cryptid stories – but stories of human cruelty prove too intriguing for her to fully turn her back on them.
Marrow has a really interesting thriller set-up that had me engaged from the start. The idea of a true crime podcast host being drawn too deeply into a case by a longtime listener who’s involved with the case is a great idea. Add in a strong lead performance and the appearances by Harris and Ironside, and this movie has a lot going for it. But, as the story goes on, it moves beyond grounded thrills and ventures further into the supernatural – much like Jamie’s podcast has been doing. And, like Jamie’s listeners, I lost a degree of interest when I realized that this was going in a fully supernatural direction, even if that element brought to mind the awesome Session 9 in some ways. The supernatural swerve doesn’t come out of nowhere, it makes sense to what was going on, but I found the execution to be underwhelming.
So, Marrow turned out in a way that was quite different from how I hoped it would, but getting to that conclusion was an interesting journey. The movie is worth a look from thriller fans, and maybe the supernatural twist will work better for others than it did for me.
Marrow will be released on November 3rd and is available for pre-order on Apple.
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