The Body Remembers: Marshmallow Review & Analysis

By: Myriam Akbar

Marshmallow is a 2025 indie sci-fi horror film that feels like an episode of Goosebumps—focusing on adolescence, adventure, and a frightening mystery. However, it’s clearly made for a broader, more mature audience and has higher stakes. This slasheresque camp tale is written by Andy Greskoviak and directed by Daniel DelPurgatorio. The plot follows children attending a summer program as they investigate an urban legend-like mad scientist. It’s now available to watch on Shudder, rightfully becoming a part of horror discourse and receiving the praise it deserves. Viewers like myself were blown away by its originality and third act’s plot-twist. 

The film opens with twelve year old Morgan having a terrifying nightmare involving water, moving to a scene of him attempting to play basketball with his new neighbors who cruelly reject him. One evening during dinner, he and his family discuss his leaving for summer camp which fills him with agitation. His grandfather attempts to get him excited for the experience, which appears to work until something tragic takes place. He suddenly dies—giving Morgan’s parents more reason to send him to Camp Almer. One night around a fire, one of the counselors tells a story about a doctor who experiments on people and turns them into monsters. Although the returning campers brush it off as tradition, Morgan becomes paranoid yet curious. The rest of the film follows his investigation into the doctor, effort to escape bullying, and desire to make friends.

Marshmallow takes a classic horror setting and cleverly utilizes it to examine themes of safety, memory, and the mystery of adult secrecy. The camp trope gives the film a slasher feel, along with villains in costumes and young adults sneaking away to hook up. Through cinematography, it captures the essence of summer and the eerie atmosphere of the woods. The characters are realistic and relatable, adding to the cohesiveness of the script. Kue Lawrence gives a naturalistic and convincing performance, demonstrating familiar attributes of adolescence like social development and identity formation. The subtle scares lean into intensity and intrigue, having some shocking moments of violence. On the other hand, there’s a few moments of well-balanced humor that contributes to the overall youthfulness of the film. The dialogue stands out as intentional and skillfully placed, matched with specific scenes that create full circle moments. It’s clear that a great deal of care went into the script writing and directing—producing a film that truly sets itself apart from other 2025 releases.

Now, let’s take a look at the third act’s plot-twist and the thematic concerns within it. 

Spoilers ahead. . . 

As most can predict, the doctor isn’t just a part of a fictional scary story—something dark is going on at Camp Almer and the staff are all in on it. Morgan and a few other children (including Pilar who he forms a friendship with) discover that the doctor is real and he’s the director of the camp. This results in their attempt to free themselves from possible danger, contemplating hiding, taking a boat across the lake, and splitting up—something that’s rarely a good idea in a horror film. Unable to round up all the campers, the counselors start to panic while Morgan and Pilar find answers for themselves. Full of anger, they bravely confront the staff with what they’ve learned from reading their files—they’re dead. 

Turns out this summer camp program is actually, in fact, a summer camp used for human programming. The campers are clones of children that died, created to help grieving families. They return to camp every year, in order to receive maintenance which plays into the story of a doctor performing experiments in the middle of the night. The staff are responsible for ensuring that everything runs smoothly and appears normal, tasked with sedating the children with spiked hot chocolate. The doctor sees this as a humane process of keeping families together; however, some of the counselors have grown tired of the routine and question the ethics of what they’re doing is wrong. One of them even decides to offer Morgan and Pilar the option of remembering what they’ve learned, as memory erasure is part of the process. Everyone working for Camp Almer has more to worry about than two children knowing their secret—the program is flawed and the campers are malfunctioning. I find this to be the most fascinating part of the twist because earlier in the film, I was confused about the severity of the bullying that was taking place with little to no punishment. The violent outbursts exhibited by the same child were actually symptoms of his programming, which is why the staff underreacted. 

The twist gets even better. Camp resumes as normal, although some of the counselors have injuries from the previous night. But, as usual they play their role. The only campers that remember what happened are Morgan and Pilar. The shocking final scene reveals that the system is failing and sets the story up for a further exploration. The director is shown on the phone, speaking to someone who is explaining that there’s other programs out there and the glitches within the cloned children are not uncommon. In fact, it’s deeper than that—they’re evolving. In comes a blood drenched Pilar, running towards him with a knife. This kind of scene obviously makes the viewer want more and luckily for us, Marshmallow is getting a sequel! 

Memory is a significant aspect of the film’s foreshadowing, shown through Morgan’s fear of water which is demonstrated from the very beginning. The opening scene depicts him having a disturbing nightmare, one that involves water and later, he refuses to participate in the water related activities. These are deliberate script choices, not just scenes to illustrate Morgan’s adolescence. His shy and apprehensive nature makes him a relatable protagonist, embodying anxieties children attending summer camp for the first time often experience. For example: aquaphobia, which is actually a common fear. However, these two scenes are also used to create a full circle when his cause of death is revealed—drowning. This instantly made me think about the way water and memory are stored in the body. The trauma of his death is still lingering because he hasn't been able to rest, resulting in his nervous system being triggered when he's near water. The erasure of this crucial memory impacts Morgan’s overall identity, because he now has to accept the unsettling truth that he was technologically recreated. 

Secrecy is necessary for the program to operate and although the parents are aware of what’s happening to their children, the manipulation of reality is what creates a dangerous situation for them. Truth not only ensures a sense of safety, but prepares children to navigate hardships. Sugarcoating is a method used by many parents in order to protect their kids from information they don’t believe they can handle. This method is used by the staff as they make light of the experiments by repackaging the truth into a campfire tale. It’s paradoxical almost, because some of us realize in adulthood that one of the best parts of childhood is not knowing. We cling to the days when life didn’t feel so heavy and when we were unaware of harsh realities. However, it’s possible we’re missing something. We forget what it’s like to be a child, craving a seat at the big kid’s table—to be in the know and to have clarity about the world around us. 

I highly recommend watching Marshmallow more than once because you’ll realize how many scenes and pieces of dialogue are cleverly placed and create full circle moments. Personally, this strategy creates a film watching experience that lingers for days and makes me want to recommend it to everyone I know. For example, when Morgan’s mother tells him that although he won’t understand now, it’s necessary for him to attend camp and that it’ll be good for him. By the end of the film you know why she says that and that she’s telling the truth, it is necessary for his survival. However, the way you feel about the ethics of cloning is another story. Another example is a scene that I think has more significance than some might think, when Morgan’s grandfather dies. His experience with grief provides him with perspective that later aids him with the acceptance of his own death, because he understands why his parents would want him to be a part of the program. The pain he experienced when his grandfather died, is the same that his parents experienced when he died. 

Looking forward to the sequel, I believe there’s enough foundation to make a film even better than the first. We are familiar with the setting, characters, themes, and main issue to be addressed–the glitching in programming. I am hoping to learn more about the program’s initial creation and first children that were experimented on, what happens to Pilar and how Morgan is coping with all that he’s learned, as well as how the camp staff is going to deal with the possible death of the director. Although we see Pilar come after him with a knife, we don’t actually know that he is dead. If he is, what happens to the cloned children? I wonder if things will be swept under the rug and her memory erased, resulting in a new director coming to Camp Almer. It’s also possible that the children will be sent to one of the other programs. Who knows! But we’ll find out soon and I can’t wait.

Photo credits: Imdb.com