Digging Up The Marrow - The Holliston Witch Project

Digging Up The Marrow
2014
D: Adam Green
W: Adam Green

S: Ray Wise, Adam Green, Will Barratt 
Not Rated - Approx 98 Min
ArieScope Pictures


Taglines:
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Alternate Titles:
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"This creature, this one here, I call Vance."

                                                                       -Dekker

I've been a fan of Adam Green's stuff since he burst on the horror scene with Hatchet.  Not only was Hatchet a bad ass slasher flick, but Adam is a fellow Masshole (hailing from Holliston, MA not far from Fitchburg, the town I grew up in.) and us Masshole's have gotta stick together.  So when I came across Digging Up The Marrow, I was rather surprised because somehow it had slipped under my radar.

I picked the disc up when it came out at the end of March and I haven't gotten a chance to sit down and watch it until today.  I had a few minor discussions about it on various podcasts, but by and large I really had no idea what I was getting into.  I'll tell ya, I was not disappointed at all.  It's Green's rather humorous take on the found footage genre.  Only the footage isn't really found.

The premise is rather clever:  Adam and Will Barrat play
themselves.  Ray Wise plays a former Boston police detective (so he claims) named William Dekker that has discovered an underground civilization of monsters and reaches out to Adam and Will to make a film to tell his story.  According to Dekker, these monsters (or "Different People" as he prefers to call them) have an entire society underground that mirrors our own.  But who are these "Different People"?  Well, according to Dekker, they are the
horribly deformed.  Humans born with severe deformities.  They seem to vanish after a certain age.  So where do they go?  To this underground civilization, which Dekker has dubbed "The Marrow".

We follow along as Adam and Will are drawn further into Dekkers world of The Marrow...which may or may not be the creation of a delusional man.  There is some interesting and compelling footage
captured, but Dekker's strict rules of observing the "Different People", his shady behavior and the fact that he lied about his past as a Boston police detective are all working against him....not to mention the fact that the boys actually watch Dekker tamper with their camera set-up around The Marrow.

The film is full of fun cameos by some of Adam's genre friends including directors Tom Holland and Mick Garris.  Tony Todd
makes a cameo as well and there's a humorous scene with Kane Hodder.  When you're not picking out some of your favorite genre personalities, you're being drawn into the fascinating and disturbing world of The Marrow along with Green and Barrat.

I've heard a few complaints that Ray Wise's character detracts from the film because pretty much everyone else is playing themselves.
 Personally, I didn't have a hard time with it.  Sure you look at Dekker and you're like "Whoa, cool!  It's Ray Wise!"  But let's be honest....he's a pretty terrific actor and he plays his part so well that Wise vanishes and all you see is Dekker.




Gore:
Sorry amigo, no gore this time.

T&A:
Nope.  This is no nakedity going on here.  Nakedity.  That's a fun word.

Monsters:
Seriously?  I've told you a bunch of times they prefer to be called "Different People".  And yes.

Final Thoughts:
Love it or hate it, you've got to admit that this is a pretty clever flick.  If you can't get past the whole Ray Wise playing a character thing, think of this as an Augmented Reality Film!  Look at that, I just created a new genre!  Goddamn, I am so ahead of my time.  Seriously, this is a damn cool flick and it's got a few good scares in it while still having that humorous Green touch.  As us Massholes would say:  It's Wicked Pissah.