The Marsh

OK, now here is a ghost story that came way under my radar and turns out to be a superior ghost story with a couple of twists. A lady children's book author is plagued with nightmares of a little girl disappearing in a swamp and images of an old house. When viewing a television story, she notices the house in her nightmare and the surrounding area, specifically a marsh where she keeps seeing and following this little girl. She tracks down the property and moves into the house, in a small remote area close to a little town. After installing a door she finds in the cellar, strange things begin to happen and what were her nightmares are now becoming too real. Yes, the house and the marsh hold deep secrets in the town and the house, and she enlists the help of a local paranormal consultant played very well by Forest Whitaker. He moves into her house with his equipment and quickly realizes the supernatural is at work. This movie succeeds on every level with excellent performances, and a very tight story that keeps you guessing until the final reveal. Are her nightmares really lost memories of a past she has forgotten, and if she is the little girl ghost then how is that possible? All the questions are answered, and I had a real ball with this one. Highly recommended.

"The Marsh" works as a typical, haunted house story. There are those that have criticised it, but really, what did you expect? Starring Gabrielle Anwar. WHO? Oh, that pretty french girl who was in that submarine movie. Right. It's a B-movie, people! So don't expect too much and you may be pleasantly surprised. Forest Whitaker, pre-King of Scotland, provides a shot of star value and basically holds the movie together. The special effects are good and the best thing about "The Marsh" is that's so pretty! The house is pretty, the female lead is pretty, hell, even the ghost is pretty! Its like a Normal Rockwell painting that's been messed with. Quite cool, just check your brain at the door and you'll be fine. :)

Claire Holloway (Gabrielle Anwar) is an author who is haunted by recurring nightmares about a house, a little girl, and THE MARSH. Claire actually locates the house from her dreams, and moves into it!

How could this possibly be a bad idea?

THE MARSH is a supernatural mystery-thriller that might remind you of POLTERGEIST or THE RING in spots. Forest Whitaker plays a helpful paranormal investigator. Both he and Ms. Anwar have an authentic quality that makes the spookiness more believable.

Overall, a pretty good ghost story...

This movie is very badly written. A few things pops into mind. And i'm just writing some of the nonsense things that this movie have

1- Who are the twins? what were they doing with the 3 guys and a 1 girl?

2- Why in the hell the news papers talk about a violation of one girl, when the only thing that makes sense is to notice the missing of TWO girls, two girls are missing and the news paper talk about a raped girl? that just plain stupid. Maybe they were already ghosts (ahahah it's irony), 'cause they disappear and no one notice, there was no family, nothing. They appear from thin air. We just know that what was said to the lead part of the movie, that the parents died in a car accident. If so, was someone of the 4 kids part of her family? Of course not, the movie is just stupid...

3- The gun that kills the "rapist" (what rape?? we just see the legs of the girl during a suffocation) was in another floor of the house and appears in the closet for the little girl to use. not even gore-comedian movies are that stupid.

4- The woman (the girl that was with the 3 boys) after all that she sees goes and stays in the house to live? That's "macabre" of her part, and she doesn't seem that type. (time line error surely)

5- This is really a question. What has the picture to do with the murderer/rapist (what rape??), is it an ancestor?

The few things that make sense are weak, this was a terrible movie. And i like low budget horror movies, and many of them also has poor plots and few sense, but like this.... this is not a low budget film, and it seems that a dead-line was made and the movie makers just rushed to do one, whatever it was.

***Contains Spoilers*** I can't quite believe the previous review. I have also just seen The Marsh at London's Frightfest and I and my friends were wholly unimpressed.

It feels like another film in a long line of by-the-numbers supernatural thrillers that have come out of Hollywood in the last five years such as Stir of Echoes, Hide and Seek, Secret Window, The Sixth Sense, The Exorcism of Emily Rose, Skeleton Key, The Mothman Prophecies, Bless the Child, The Forgotten, The Others etc, etc (Some of these films are quite good, but you get my point)

I have become very bored of creepy houses (this one was particularly un-imaginative) creepy cornfields, creepy little girls in night dresses, creepy dolls and scarecrows, creepy children's drawings, creepy children's songs, windows blowing open in gusts of wind etc, etc

It is also frustrating when EVERYTHING vaguely frightening is accompanied by a thunderous drum beat, even things like a shot of a child's teddy bear hitting the floor during a flashback! This device seemed to be the only means of creating any scares.

While this film was very professionally made it was very well-worn and tedious, with a series of flashbacks and revelations about something terrible which happened in the protagonist's past. The set in particular was not good and most of the flashbacks centered around a stained glass window in a door which was entirely modern and looked like it could be bought in any home improvements store.

The ultimate villain-ghost that is finally revealed to have triggered the events is actually just a rather misguided and pathetic character so when they came over all demonic at the end it rang really hollow for me.

The events themselves which triggered the haunting were, once again, rather unimportant yet predictable and wholly unoriginal.

A by-the-numbers money spinner in my opinion