By MICHAEL GINGOLD
The true-crime-inspired horror film is set to roll this summer.
RUE MORGUE got the word that genre faves Michael Ironside and Danielle Harris have joined the cast of MARROW, being produced by Absentia Pictures. The ensemble also includes Jessica Dawn Willis, Ashley Spicer, Phil Harrison, Matthew Tompkins, Abby Joy, Natali Jones, Kristin Payne, Vanessa Sun, Rachel Rice and Marc Rouse. Mitch McLeod will direct from a script he wrote with Willis and novelist Preston Fassel (OUR LADY OF THE INFERNO, BEASTS OF 42ND STREET), with Willis, Tompkins and Jon Keeyes (BECKY) producing. According to the official synopsis, “MARROW stars Willis as Jamie Foster, a formerly successful vlogger who attempts to revitalize her career by inviting her stalker onto the show–knowing he may be the serial killer responsible for murdering a string of influencers. Although Jamie’s views go up, she begins to realize more than her life is at stake when the stalker’s identity–and humanity–come into question. Harris co-stars as Carmilla, Jamie’s wealthy yet ruthless aunt whose threats to cut funding drive Jamie’s desperation to succeed. Ironside will appear as Dr. Jonathan Majors, a disgraced former psychiatrist who survived a mysterious encounter with Jamie’s stalker in the past.”
“MARROW takes the true accounts of a stalking in small-town Texas in the early 2000s and places it within a modern lens,” McLeod says, “exploring America’s oftentimes unsettling fascination with serial killers and true crime podcasts. I’ve never seen the dark side of these explored in film, from both the lens of the audience and those telling these stories, and I want to lean into that in an attempt to understand these dark fascinations held by so many.” MARROW will begin shooting in July in Broken Bow, Oklahoma and wrap before the end of the summer, with 2nd unit filming taking place in Dallas.