The Drownsman

I liked the idea of this horror film and the first 30 minutes of The Drownsman were good. I actually thought that this time and this horror film would scare me. But then everything changed. The characters stopped being interesting, the dialogues started to repeated again and again, the story from horror turned to a bad comedy. Okay, I passed my free time, I had some laughs - not the ideal thing when you are watching a horror movie. If this is only what you want from a movie in general, then The Drownsman is the right choice for you. And something for the faint-hearted, don't forget to take your bath or drink lots of water before watching it!

'The Drownsman' (2014) is an interminably soggy, low budget, zero voltage horror film about the tepid, water-logged exploits of a rather grubby, permanently damp Andrew WK-looking freak who gets his nefarious jollies by drowning nubile young females which proved to be about as diverting as boiling an egg, but without the edifying sustenance. Even if you distilled the entire film down to a 2 minute horror shot, it wouldn't scare the furry training pants off a baby meerkat!

This is your typical horror/slasher movie you get served here. A few good looking women (who are all friends), get haunted by something/someone. It's not really original, but it's entertaining enough to watch, if you lower your expectations enough. The physical aspect of the actresses work has to be stressed out, even though it shouldn't matter on your view of the movie in general.

The movie is also trying to give us something different every time we go into ... that other place. It's nicely choreographed and shot, if not anything else. It's predictable, but the tension is still there and you can watch it with a couple of friends as a party movie too.

The Drownsman has a few nice concepts, while they might not be novel, these are still intriguing to some degree. It creates a good visual with simple use of water and contrasting light. The characters are predictable in their looks or bad decisions, yet surprisingly audiences could warm up to them. If there's anything that hampers the movie, it dives too much to the genre familiarities, to the point that some scenes are near identical with other horror flicks.

Madison (Michelle Mylett) has awkward accident as she slips in a pier and nearly dies from drowning. As she wakes up she is haunted by an entity that dwells on water. Things escalate as her friends try to perform faux cleansing and unwittingly share the cursed stalking. The movie protagonists consist of all female, almost like a sorority in jeopardy. Acting is decent overall, and it's good to say that the movie treats its cast with appreciation, it doesn't put them on bras and panties and splash some water on them, even though it has all the excuses to do so.

The lead Michelle Mylett is pretty good, although these girls can be interchangeable at times. The personalities don't stand out much, they are what audiences would expect from any horror films. You'd have the lead who is a victim and her skeptical friends, eventually they all run and scream the same. In fact The Drownsman borrows many other aspects from previous works like Final Destination or Friday the 13th. There's a random puddle, it may be a trap put by psychopath ghost to trip someone and brutally drown them.

Some of the scenes might not hit the mark, especially those which inspired by genre clichés such as ignored premonition or creepy warning by equally creepy characters. They come across as a tad silly, furthermore the logic isn't exactly neatly constructed. The antagonist might appear literally from a spill, but then again human body is mostly water, what if someone pees or does it have to be normal water. So many questions unresolved to plot holes.

While it's overly familiar and bizarre at some points, the movie looks good and it sprinkles enough mystery to pique audiences' curiosity, at least for a rental or movie night.

A bunch of young, attractive female friends are stalked and killed by a supernatural killer known as The Drownsman. Some similarities to Freddy Krueger. Both have creepy basements and are able to drag victims into their worlds. Both have back stories, though Freddy's is far better. There's not a drop of blood here, it's pretty much watered down horror by today's standards (pun intended), though viewers with a fear of water or drowning may get more if a thrill out of it. Average in every department, 5/10 from me.