Beneath Still Waters (2005) Movie Review, Trailer and Poster

Spain, UK 2005
Director: Brian Yuzna
Cast: Patrick Gordon, Michael McKell, Charlotte Salt, Raquel Meroño, Pilar Soto, Damià Plensa
Rating: R
Release Date: October 2005 (Spain)
Running Time: 1 hour 32 minutes

The Movie Review

I had read several literatures about towns underwater, especially because they're drowned deliberately for the sake of building dams. The themes that bring up this town usually would falls into the fantasy genre or horror, of course. And this year, with all the serial killer horror thriller theme, Beneath Still Waters' premise is actually refreshing, and I personally welcome that. There's always something magical and eerie about ghost town, most notably the one that underwater.

Beneath Still Waters DVD being released on April 2007 and having watched several serial killer movies in March and April just like Disturbia (2007), Vacancy (2007), and Zodiac (2007), I had thought Beneath Still Waters would carry the


BENEATH STILL WATERS
Storyline:
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same theme.. But hey! The premise is way way different and good, but eventually falls down to the gutter of disappointment. Sigh...

This horror movie is based on a novel written by Matthew Costello and it tells the story of a cursed dam in Northern Spain called the Debaria Dam. In 1965, a town called Marienbad was drowned deliberately by the ruling Mayor Roberto Borgia in order to build a dam. On the last day just a few hours before the town is going to be drowned, two kids named Teo and Luis are trespassing and entering the abandoned town where they find several weird looking people and particularly their vampire-looking-but-cannibal master (Patrick Gordon) chained inside a building. Theo's decision to set the master free is lethal to Theo, thus left little Luis escaping alone before the town is finally set underwater.

The story then shifts 40 years later where the town's people and the new Mayor are about to celebrate the 40th anniversary celebration of Debaria Dam but their plan is kinda disturbed by the death of a local guy named Antonio who at that time swim at the dam with his two friends, which one of them is actually the granddaughter of Mayor Roberto named Clara Borgia (Charlotte Salt; Beowulf (2007)). A local reporter who we learn later to be Clara's mom Theresa Borgia (Raquel Merono) and a British diver/photo journalist, Dan Quarry (Michael McKell) now must solve the mystery as they find more and more strange coincidences pertaining the Debaria Dam and added the fact that the master that once Theo set free has come back to finish his job.

Beneath Still Waters was shot entirely in Madrid, Spain, and directed by Brian Yuzna, of Beyond Re-Animator (2003) and The Dentist (1996). Almost all the entire cast is not English-speaking actors maybe except for Patrick Gordon, Michael McKell and Charlotte Salt, which means the rest of the cast do not speak English very well. Speak English? Yes, they don't speak Spanish but English instead. And although it helps me a lot in understanding the movie, still their Latin dialect is too strong, and their English cues us that this is merely a movie. I mean it lessens the tension, a lot. Sorry to say that it even feels like a comedy. This is made worse by the unnecessary comedy dialogue and camerawork particularly in a scene between the Mayor and the cops, which makes it look like daytime TV drama. And sorry to say again, the kissing scene between Dan Quarry and Theresa is downright laughable for having no reason at all, it goes something like this, Theresa says "Oh I'm so sad" and then poof..., Dan replies "Okay, it's time to kiss".

Speaking about tension, there is enough room for tension, even a whole darn dam for tension. But Brian Yuzna still relies on old boo scares accompanied with campy music and cheesy sound effects that would let you know when and where "something" or "someone" is going to pop up. By this I don't mean to state that the music is bad, they're pretty scary, but only if you haven't seen a real scary film before. And the visual effects are moth-eaten measured by today's advancement in the computer graphic field. Probably the only good thing (or bad?) about Beneath Still Waters is the graphic nude scenes which runs quite long. It should've been good in an exploitation kind of way, but those scenes are seriously a "sad" attempt to patch things up.

The storyline of this horror movie is confused with so many things that seem to be independent from each other. It should have been made as a TV series and air it at night, that way, Beneath Still Waters would probably be more worth your time to watch. Otherwise skip it.

© iwan pranowo of Movielogy.com