Review of The Marsh (2006) by Zarinah H — 14 Jul 2008

I had mixed feelings watching this movie. The Marsh is not an original horror movie as I kept comparing it to movies like Stir of Echoes, Dark Water etc as I watched it. That being said, it has an interesting though not remarkable premise, and is well-shot. Gabrielle Anwar [who seems to be in quite a few horror movies these days] plays a children's book author, Claire Holloway who keeps having disturbing nightmares about her childhood and events she no longer remembers as having occured. Upon seeing a familiar place on tv, she ventures out to a small town in Westmoreland County, Marshville, where she leases a house she finds disturbingly familiar.

It doesn't take long for Claire to encounter spooky entities and experience disturbing visions. She enlists the aid of a spook consultant, Geoffry Hunt [Forest Whitaker] and he helps her discover the truth behind Claire's visions. It appears that Claire's 'return' to the town of Marshville has unleashed supernatural entities that are seeking revenge for a tragedy long past and Claire is somehow in the center of it.

The effects are good for what I assume is a low-budget movie - the entities look creepy enough, and the scares are the usual blink and you'll miss it kind. The movie also has a sufficiently bleak and menacing atmosphere, especially in the scenes where the entities wreak havoc.

As for the acting, both Anwar as Claire and Whitaker as Hunt do a credible job with the script they are given, though I felt this role was far beneath Whitaker's talent [this movie was before The Last King of Scotland for which he deservedly won an Oscar].

True horror fans who feel they deserve better may not appreciate this as much, but I felt it was worth a rental and the story held my attention till the end.