Dark Waters

A young woman travels to a mysterious, unnamed island to find out why her belated father funded a strange monastery.

Dark Waters has disappeared off the planet. I wouldn't have known about it had I not read Mark Kermode's autobiography. I'm also a fan of the Tartan Video and they put out this one as a limited VHS release in 1995. Dark Waters is similar in style to the Italian Giallo films, especially the more atmospheric ones. It reminded me a bit of early Mario Bava and Soavi's The Church. The film is very atmospheric with excellent lighting and cinematography which hide its small budget. The film has drawn comparisons to Lovecraftian fiction with its use of religious themes, the unknown and suspicion of outsiders. There's further comparisons to be made to The Wicker Man. Dark Waters gets jumbled up in it storytelling and becomes lost in its own ambiguity. This is a film were a longer running time would be beneficial to iron out some of the creases.

Dark Water is a stylish and interesting horror film with some scares and some strong violence. Sadly the plot is messy and the brief bloody scenes can't save what is effectively Giallo-lite. The film is not some hidden gem or lost masterpiece. It's an above average stylish horror film that came out at a time when the market was over saturated with Straight-To-Video slashers. The film has had a Blu-Ray release which features a nice albeit soft matte picture and crisp, clean sound. There's also a rare 2-disc DVD with a replica of the stone amulet.

Mariano Baino obviously loves Argento's 'Suspiria' and 'Inferno' and Fulci's 'The Beyond'. 'Dark Waters' is very good attempt at recreating old school Italian horror where style is more important than plot, and atmosphere rules. It isn't as flamboyant, incoherent or as gory as Argento and Fulci's most excessive movies, but that isn't such a bad thing. Personally I'm nuts about movies that deal with heresies, conspiracies, and evil nuns, so I enjoyed this creepy thriller a great deal. Recommended.

Often the camera-work struck me as surreal, entrancing and dreamlike, picking unusual shots or showing unusual images. I think it is fair to compare this movie with some of Argento's better horror work such as Suspiria and Inferno, even though it is not at that level. Dark Waters takes its time, though, and does not at all have a rock pace like Argento, at least in spots, has in his films.

Another fair comparison might be to Fulci's Demonia, but I feel this was better than that.

There is relatively little dialogue, making this, perhaps "pure cinema." Unfortunately, what dialogue there was was sometimes very low, so that I had to keep raising and lowering the volume, possibly a flaw of the DVD copy I viewed (possibly actually a VCD, I think). However, some characters' accents were also a little difficult to decipher, and while that may have been intentional, it would have been nice to have had an option of subtitles.

Some of the characters' motivation was also mysterious to me. Are all the nuns on the same side or not? Whose side are they on? Why was Sarah different than Elizabeth? Why was the father sending money to the nuns? Where was the church located?

Despite these questions, I was very taken by the movie, and would watch it again.

It's best to walk into Dark Waters knowing that it's going to be an exercise of style over substance. As great and moody as the atmosphere of this movie is, the story itself is murky and hard to pin down. As best as I can tell, it's about a young woman whose father dies and she visits a strange island monestary that her father had been sending money to for years. Once she gets there, she gets the feeling that she's very unwelcome and she might unearth some truths that are better left buried.

One thing Dark Waters gets right is the atmosphere. If I didn't know any better, I'd truly believe this was a film shot in the mid-70's by some Italian horror master. It's beautifully shot with so much attention to detail. It's just a shame that the script didn't seem to have as much thought put into it. At one point, the lead character is attacked by a psychotic nun and she reacts to this as if she's just stubbed her toe. There's no sense of urgency at all. Wouldn't someone who'd just been attacked want to get out of there as soon as possible?

I saw this first on a vhs in the mid 90s. I never understood the film then. Found it to be one helluva weird stuff. Revisited it recently after reading many glowing reviews n the cult following. Honestly, now i found it to be meh. As i mentioned in my review of the movie A Cure For Wellness that cinematography n atmosphere ain't enough to save a bad film. Apart from some solid imagery, the cathedral's location, the village, the atmosphere of constant raining n murky weather, the weird characters, the leaking cathedral with its dripping water, the cliff n the setting sun, the catacombs with their candles n the enigmatic passageways, there ain't anything good about this film. In fact, there is no music, very few dialogues n the story is really confusing. Strange things seems to happen for no reason. Its not ur typical Nunsploitation, so dont expect nudity n sex.