Sightlines · reception

How Marrowbone was received

2017 · Sergio G. Sánchez · Marrowbone on Sightlines

The arc

Met with a shrug in 2017–18 — middling reviews (49% on Rotten Tomatoes) and a quiet release — it's since been rediscovered as an accidental time capsule: Anya Taylor-Joy, George MacKay, Charlie Heaton and Mia Goth, all cast just before they became huge.

What’s debated

It all comes down to the twist: fans argue over whether the ending is a devastating gut-punch or a familiar trick that retroactively deflates the gothic mood the film spent an hour building.

Its footprint

Its main cultural currency is that cast list — it circulates on Letterboxd and Twitter as 'the 2017 movie that predicted the 2020s,' the go-to deep cut for before-they-were-famous spotting.

Where it stands

A minor cult object kept alive less by consensus than by curiosity — the film completists watch for the cast and stay to argue about.

Did you know? It's the directorial debut of Sergio G. Sánchez, the screenwriter of The Orphanage and The Impossible — and his old collaborator J.A. Bayona returned the favour by executive-producing it.

Named by the director

• The Other (1972) — Sánchez named Robert Mulligan's film one of the biggest influences, for its world of children living beyond adult supervision.
• Our Mother's House (1967) — He cited Jack Clayton's film alongside The Other as the seed of Marrowbone — children building their own world in the absence of ruling figures.