Dead in the Water

Yet again I have been fooled by a low budget, film students end-of-year project masquerading as a movie.

Production is non-existent, the acting is comparable to a porn movie, the budget is minimal and the story (what there is of it) is tatty and confused.

If I had made this film with my friends on a mobile phone I would be really pleased, but I would never ask people to part with money to watch it.

It is actually painful to watch.

For instance in one scene a guy walks out to the kitchen, does a cartoon tripple-take for about a minute at the horde of zombies descending on the house, runs back to his friends. But they are making out, so being a polite kind of guy he doesn't want to interrupt so he just stands there whilst they get off with each other (out of shot) and then forgets about the killer zombies contained by a flimsy screen door a few feet away, luckily so did the writer as the characters have a stroll around the house a bit later.

It is not one of those movies that is so bad it is good, it is just bad. There is no funny moments, no gory affects, no tension, no nudity, the twist in the tail is pathetic and makes no sense.

The only tolerable parts are the sub plot shown in flash back regarding the two sisters relationship (which holds no baring on the plot what so ever) and the sound track is good in parts.

I was privileged to obtain an advance DVD of this independently produced film, and have now had the opportunity to view it several times, on a 50" plasma HD TV, no less! RPM Films and Wyche Elm Films are no strangers to film production, but their previous efforts have been along the lines of short subjects, instructional films, and music videos. This is their first attempt at a feature-length film, and their attention to detail is readily apparent. The on location filming took place in the lake country of Wisconsin, and the beauty of the Fall colors and serenity of the calm lake surface provide the perfect backdrop to the building sense of foreboding and impending doom. The tag line "Fear the Calm" was well-chosen. The film is exceptionally well paced and edited, the camera angles are well thought out and carefully chosen, and the sound quality is remarkably crisp for a film shot primarily outdoors and in a lakeside cabin.

The major actors are all in their late teens or early twenties, and like the actors in "Blair Witch Project", "Night of the Living Dead", and some other cult classics, are unknown (for the moment). The cast is impressive for their seamless absorption into their characters. The older sister (Megan Burgess): controlling, yet insecure; stilted, yet hiding a dark secret. The younger sister (Alissa Bailey): town slut, or over-compensating for her alienation from her family? The older sister's boyfriend (Bill Zasadil): a real "boy scout", but is he doing penance for some prior sin? Finally, the younger sister's boyfriend (Mike Parrish): is he a zombie expert, or just a target for everyone else's derision? The young cast made it look easy. The test of a skilled actor is not to appear to be acting, and these four passed their test with points to spare.

If you enjoyed earlier independent horror movies, such as "Blair Witch" and the original "NoLD", you should certainly enjoy this movie, as it exceeds them both in production values. Altogether an admirable effort for RPM and Wyche Elm. I look forward to more from them.

Although I love suspense, I don't usually like horror movies. It seems that most horror movies are all about how can we kill the next character off in an even more creative (and disgusting) way. I usually don't watch horror films for this very reason, and when I do, I usually have my eyes closed for a large portion of the movie. Kudos to Dead in the Water. I didn't close my eyes once, and I enjoyed every minute of it. The scenery was spectacular, the acting A+. This is NOT a horror film in which you know the story immediately and the rest of the film is all about, "Oh no, who is going to get killed next?" Instead, the story progresses a little bit at a time. Flashbacks in the form of memories help us to understand the characters and their motives a lot better. I loved the story, the scenery, the acting and the direction. I'm looking forward to a sequel!

I had read a couple reviews here and on Netflix and knew I was in for a terrible movie but I wasn't prepared for how mind numbing it would be. I wonder if anybody who worked on this movie has ever seen a movie before.

I would criticize the acting but that would be mean. So I'll talk about the script instead. There was no plot that I was able to see, these people go here and sit around and zombies and drama. Classic film school dialog, those words probably sounded awesome on the page that weekend. Characters are as follows: two sisters, their boyfriends, other random people, zombies. I just finished watching the movie and I'm on IMDb and I have no idea what these characters names were. I think one of them was named Paul.

But I've never made a movie so kudos to you.

P.S. When I say "zombies" I use that term very loosely.