I love a good ghost story. I grew up on films like House on Haunted Hill (1958). Sadly, these types of film are few and far between. And, when we do get them, they're usually not very well done. THE MARSH is sadly no exception.

The film centers on Claire Holloway (Gabrielle Anwar), a children's writer who gets her source material from her dreams. Claire's dreams have been having an adverse effect on her lately and her doctor feels that she should take a holiday and relax. While searching for a place to stay, she stumbles upon an ad for the house that frequents her dreams. After checking the house out, she decides to stay for the winter and start work on her new book. While in town, she is startled at seeing the buildings and people that are in her dreams. When Claire senses a supernatural presence in the house, she phones up Geoffrey Hunt (Forest Whitaker), a local paranormal and occult investigator. After discovering the ghosts of a little girl and her murderer, Claire and Geoffrey team up with local historian Noah Pitney (Justin Louis) to uncover what connection Claire has to the house.

The film's initial plot is basically the only thing that kept me watching. I thought that while the relationship between Claire's dreams and the house was lifted from The Haunting, it was a nice touch that worked for the film. Some of the special effects were also decent, such as when Claire's study transforms into a child's bedroom, with decrepit wallpaper growing out of the walls and furniture growing out of the floor.

And that is where anything that could be listed as “positive” about this film ends. While the initial premise was good, the rest of the film is a textbook example of bad execution. We have the common element of a vengeful spirit (Which can be a winner in some cases but not here) added with the extremely overused sexual circumstance. The camera work is boring and the performances are as patchy as the marsh outside of the house.

The script is truly the lowest point of the production. The dialogue alone gave me a good laugh at least a dozen or so times. The worst part is the convenient way out the writer took in propelling the story. Claire just happens to see a commercial on TV, containing the house from her dreams. What are the chances in that? Slim to none is my guess. But, out of all of the coincidences in the film, I can swallow this one the easiest (She's got to get there somehow). However, I draw the line when she finds a business card with Hunt's name on it conveniently floating through the air in her house (Thats right, the card actually falls from the sky) right after she sees ghosts for the first time. And, what are the chances that in a town of what seems like 50 people, there would be a paranormal investigator? The writer doesn't even give Whitaker's character any real knowledge of the paranormal. He sets up some cameras in the house and gives the Dakota Fanning stare whenever the lights flicker. Great investigating! He must have graduated from Mystery Machine University. There was absolutely no need for his character whatsoever.

Apparently, the writer even thought that the script was so great, it needed two different surprise endings. And both could be figured out, at most, 30 minutes into the film. I felt insulted as a viewer.

We've seen this film before, done much better. THE MARSH is overly cliché and seems like it was thrown together over a weekend. The biggest mystery posed by the film is why Sony bought the rights to this clunker. Do yourself a favor and skip past this one at your local video store.