The Black Waters of Echo's Pond

I expected the worse, where given some of the outright scorn poured on Gabriel Bologna's independently produced TV style movie, has been quite scary in itself! Truth is, is that it is very much same old same old as regards genre tropes, but it at least does it well enough to not make this a complete waste of time.

Set-up is via a prologue that establishes something murky and menacing happened back in Turkey 1927. Forward to the present day and a bunch of horny young adults converge on a cabin and find a mysterious board game that might relieve the tensions. Said game is of course a left over from that Turkey curse thing, a game which brings out all the pent up bile and fantasies that were previously lying dormant in this so called bunch of friends.

What transpires is hardly surprising, the group turn on each other - and turn each other on as it happens - where Bologna throws all the "cabin in the woods" staples into the pot. Blood does flow, shrieks do feature, as does ink streaming out of the protagonist's eyes. Robert Patrick is under used as the creepy vodka swigging guardian of "his" island, and much of the youthful cast struggle to impact with conviction.

Yet as the thongs and boobs cater for the like minded under sexed, and as the gore (refreshingly not over killed by CGI) keeps on a coming, The Black Waters of Echo's Pond still fills out its run-time with honest horror movie intent. Not one to rush out and grasp with bloody hands, but as late night cable time fillers go it passes muster. 6/10

Oh, what could have been created with a better script and direction. Zarathustra for adults(pseudo). This really could have been so scary, but not with this crew. What a waste.

Nine friends take a holiday at a Victorian home on a private island and uncover a game that when played brings out the worst in each of them. Jealously, greed, hatred, lust, all of the things they keep buried deep inside themselves rise to the surface and come to a boil.

Something went terribly wrong when making this movie. It was written and produced by Sean Clark, one of the greatest human beings in the horror community. It stars James Duval, Danielle Harris and Robert Patrick... that alone should sell it to fans. Even the effects and story are pretty decent.

Despite this, something about it makes the film boring. Probably the directing, but it could be more than that. Duval in some scenes is great and in others makes no effort to act. Were not enough takes shot, or did he not have the heart? Almost as bad, the distributor (Anchor Bay) seemed to have no love for the film. Clark put together a nice package of extras (which he gives away for free) that Anchor Bay turned down. Why? A bad film is a bad film, but some features might have at least explained what happened.

I had the honor, I suppose, of seeing this as a convention last year. After a meet and greet with some of the cast and crew, the theater went dark and this movie flickered up on the screen. Roughly 7 minutes in, I turned to my friend and told him every plot twist we were going to see, the order the characters would die in, and how the movie would end. I was about 94% dead-on, and the row behind me started laughing out loud every time one of my predictions came true. The film looked alright and had a decent score, but the characters were not well written and the plot was so by-the-numbers it killed any chance for suspense to build. What we do get is some long slooow character development of several unlikable people and when the horror does kick in, it makes little sense and doesn't seem to fit the tone that led up to it. I hate to say it, because the cast/crew were very supportive and proud of their work, but I've essentially seen this movie before, and seen it done better. The only recommendations I can give are for James Duval and Robert Patrick, both of whom give inspired performances with pretty bare roles.

Stumbling upon another horror movie that I had never heard about, and finding the movie's cover to be interesting, and given my life-long love of the horror genre, of course I needed no persuasion to sit down and watch "The Black Waters of Echo's Pond". Sure, I had no idea what I was in for here, so director Gabriel Bologna had every opportunity to bedazzle and entertain me.

The storyline in the movie was not one that was particularly entertaining. Sure it was watchable for what it was, but I didn't find it to be an outstanding horror experience. The narrative was too slow paced and there weren't really any thrills or scares in the storyline. Sure, maybe if you're right off of the boat and never seen a horror movie before, then "The Black Waters of Echo's Pond" might be scary. But for a seasoned horror veteran, this was a mere walk in the park. Writers Michael Berenson, Gabriel Bologna and Sean Clark delivered nothing out of the ordinary here.

It felt as if the writers were writing independently on the script from a base idea, but none of the three knew what the other two were writing. And that made for a somewhat befuddled and jumpy movie experience. The narrative was a bit all over the place, but failing to be all there at the same time.

The movie actually had some familiar faces and talents on the cast list, such as Danielle Harris, James Duval, Robert Patrick, Electra Stone, Elise Avellan and Richard Tyson. The acting performances in the movie were fair.

If you enjoy horror movies, then "The Black Waters of Echo's Pond" is not a movie that I would recommend you to rush out and track down a copy of. It just simply wasn't really worth sitting through 89 minutes of what director Gabriel Bologna brought to the screen. Sure, I managed to endure the movie and sit through it to the bitter end, but believe me I am never return to watch it a second time.

My rating of director Gabriel Bologna's 2009 movie "The Black Waters of Echo's Pond" lands on a generous three out of ten stars.