The Marsh King's Daughter

A girl learns to track deer through the marshes of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, and every lesson, passed or failed, ends with a tattoo from her father. That's where 'The Marsh King's Daughter' begins, adapted from Karen Dionne's 2017 novel, which Suspense Magazine named its book of the year. Neil Burger, who made 'Limitless' and 'Divergent', directs from a script by Elle Smith and Mark L. Smith, who also wrote 'The Revenant'. It's a survival thriller more than a family drama.

Helena adores her father, Jacob, and spends her days in the woods with him, far from her withdrawn, unhappy mother. Then a stranger turns up near their cabin and her mother begs him for help. The truth comes out: Jacob kidnapped her mother years earlier, and Helena was born into captivity. Her father goes to prison, and the girl who loved him is left to make sense of what he did.

Two decades on, Helena has a quiet life with her husband Stephen and their young daughter Marigold. She covers her tattoos, and not even Stephen knows she's the daughter of the man known as the Marsh King. Then Jacob breaks out of prison. Helena fears he'll come for Marigold, and she knows nobody can read that wilderness, or the man, better than she can.

Daisy Ridley, Rey in 'The Force Awakens', plays Helena, with Brooklynn Prince ('The Florida Project') as the young girl. Ben Mendelsohn is Jacob, Garrett Hedlund is Stephen, Caren Pistorius the mother and Gil Birmingham Clark, the officer who rescued them. It was announced in 2018 with Morten Tyldum and Alicia Vikander, but by 2021 it was Burger and Ridley's. Filming took place that summer in Ontario, including the Ken Reid Conservation Area near Lindsay.

Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions pushed it back a month to avoid Taylor Swift's concert film, and it opened in US cinemas on 3 November 2023. British viewers got it on Prime Video in January 2024. Reviews were mixed: critics liked the cast and the opening stretch in the woods, less so a pace that sags and the ending. Several reached for 'Where the Crawdads Sing' and 'Room'.

• Thriller
• Crime
• Mystery