Angel

Still Waters (Angel) is almost a parody of classic sci-fi Species. It follows an enigmatic girl as she goes on a killing spree while a team of experts is chasing her. The delivery is astonishingly bad and highly unrealistic, it practically becomes comedy at times. Script consists of profanity spamming for every other sentences, which doesn't help the forced silly acting. The movie is a test of patience and endurance.

The problem starts with the main character Angel (Jenn Murray). Be it the direction or acting from Murray, she looks like a ludicrous imitation of mannequin. It's so terribly exaggerated with repetitive bland monologue and sudden burst of tantrum. This is supposedly to be a dangerous girl, yet she just looks odd as though she's is trapped in bizarre Halloween party for eternity, both the look and reaction are so fake.

Other characters don't fare better either. They are made of several crime drama clichés, the stern female investigator for example. She is the epitome of 80s macho template but now in lady form. The bravado is superficially overwhelming, she may just wear eyepatch and grow a beard. Surprisingly, John Hannah is here, though it doesn't help much with the feeble script.

Writing is sloppy, utilizing chain of curses for any development. Furthermore, the story is littered with irregularities, from surreal reactions to dumb characters. It tries to bring heavy issue like child abuse or psychological trauma, yet the presentation is too odd to be believable. There's no decent conclusion for the excruciating spectacle.

There's a term, uncanny valley, to depict CGI effect that almost mimics real human but eerily not enough and eventually looking like strange doll. This applies to this movie, it extremely fake and foolish, it's unbearable to watch.

I wasn't going to mention this Brit-horror oddity, but, on reflection it's arguably hinkey enough for more tweaked B-Horror obsessed misfits to give it a shout. Ray Burdis's 'Angel', sadly, had the potential to be a decent psychological horror film, all the lurid ingredients were certainly present, but the so-so execution, prosaic dialogue, and wildly inconsistent performances did much to clip this Angel's wings. On the plus side, the gamine, Jenn Murray's portrayal of cutesy kooky psycho killer Angel was suitably incandescent. Angel's increasingly demented interludes proved memorable, and the macabre flashbacks to her distressing childhood trauma were genuinely unsettling. Once I realised that 'Angel' was veering inexorably into Schlock Central I started to dig on it most righteously. This skeevey tale of bloody-minded vengeance is a creepy curate's egg, but one hopes that another equally twisted reprobate might share a modicum of my, perhaps, entirely misguided enthusiasm for, Ray Burdis's earnest misfire!

Sadly my career as courier to cheeky governments and well dressed spy, is over. I was thrust into a seat (Like I've been on many occasions In my career - perks of the job etc) while the enemy employ various means to try extract secrets I'm holding.

Well the chair, the heating turned off, a bit of water-boarding began then they tightened the straps ensuring I wasn't able to move and made me watch this film! I gave them everything, including my ultra secret fantasy for Sarah Palin dressed in a catsuit while reading Tolstoy to me.

This isn't a film - It's a torture technique. I hope my eyes will one day forgive me.

I enjoyed this movie. Jenn Murray is quite believable as a victim of child abuse and her performance was chilling at times in the way she played Angel fighting her inner demons. Peter Hugo-Daly is the essence of evil as the depraved clown and sent shivers down my spine. The only downside to me is the amount of swear words in the dialog. I suppose they were put in to make it realistic but I believe that swear words are unnecessary in a movie as I know several people that won't watch a movie that contains swear words no matter how good the movie is.

The Plot kept me guessing until the very end.

The Film is inspired by the book Still Waters by NigelMcClery and not Core of Evil as stated on the Front Page here. The Book is also a very good read and sufficiently different so as to not spoil the Film. I can Recommend Both.

As far as british films go this isn't half bad. Most pyscopaths were victims of abuse, this is a another such story. Quite a lot going on in this if you like conspiracy pyscho films. Jenn Murray plays Angel quite well, supported by John Hannah & Margo Stilley the pursuers. The only problem was the ending was a bit of an anticlimax but all in all decent horror.