O Pântano

THE MARSH is yet another scary movie to satisfy the apparently inexhaustible demand for fright films of this genre. It is obviously a low budget film that suffers from a silly script resurrecting tired themes of communication with ghosts and the intervention of paranormal specialists.

Successful children's book author and illustrator Claire Holloway (Gabrielle Anwar) is besieged by recurrent nightmares that prompt her therapist to recommend a sabbatical, advice she heeds as she moves out into the country to a little creepy town called Marshville. She rents a old house near the marsh from a woman Mercy (Brooke Johnson) and discovers from the local newspaper editor Noah (Justin Louis) that the town is riddled with history of hauntings following the disappearance of a little girl into the marshes, the victim of sexual assault that has never been adequately investigated. Claire's time in her new 'home' is racked with appearances of the dead little girl and her muddy perpetrator and she finally seeks the help of a Paranormal expert Hunt (Forest Whitaker) who helps her solve the etiology of Claire's nightmares and provides an exit for the ghosts.

Most of the film is dark with poor Claire just wandering around the creepy house with her open-mouthed/wide-eyed frightened look, avoiding the flying detritus caused by the angry spirits that haunt her. Gabrielle Anwar is beautiful to look at but is not really called upon to act. Likewise Forest Whitaker is paralyzed by an inept script that even this fine actor can't overcome. The music is the canned, synthesizer variety and the camera work is jerky and gets in the way of the story. This is a movie for avid fans of scary flicks who can overlook the multiple production and writing problems. Grady Harp

A Halloween movie--not terrible if you actually watch it on that Holiday, with a few drinks, as you do other things.

Not an amazing or terribly original film. Smooth and seamless special FX.

Forrest Whitaker does a very fine job...with what he is given screenplay-(and direction)wise.

Just don't expect to be amazed by the plot and execution.

No one who worked on this project should be shattered if some viewers notice that it was done for the money.

Nothing wrong with that.

Entertainment.

THE MARSH is an absolutely typical ghost story about a lonely woman moving into a lonely house that turns out to be haunted by...yada yada. The end result is that it plays out exactly as you'd expect, featuring the few unlucky actors to be caught up in this mess finding themselves at the mercy of various CGI-augmented spirits whose appearance has been crafted in the most ordinary way.

The script is poor and the direction worse, with none of the creative people involved failing to make anything of the premise. It says much that my memory of the film is already fading, at a rapid pace, a mere 24 hours after I watched it. Gabrielle Anwar (THE TUDORS) fails to bring life to a rather stiff and uninteresting lead character and seems to be trying to get her American accent right rather than delivering a decent performance. Forest Whitaker (PHONE BOOTH) appears slightly befuddled and is probably wondering what he's doing caught up in this nonsense.

Because this is nonsense, I'll make no bones about it. Every haunted house cliché in the book is played out, from the restless ghost of a kid (a little blonde girl, of course) to the vengeful spirit with the scary eyes. The jump scenes are predictable as is the rest of the plot and the effects are poor, taking you out of the movie every time they pop up. A dismal effort, this.

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.

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...