'The Drowned', Samuel Clemens' debut feature, is an atmospheric, slow-burn psychological thriller and abstract horror that mixes an art heist with echoes of Greek myth. While it has a certain hypnotic pull. It does not work the way it had the potential to, and the entire experiences feels muddled. However, having said that, I do not believe that it deserves the current abysmal rating of 3.7/10 here on IMDB as of 1/11/2025.
The film follows three men (played by Alan Calton, Dominic Vulliamy, and Michelangelo Fortuzzi) who, after stealing a priceless painting, hole up in an isolated seaside safe house, only to realise their fourth accomplice is missing. They soon encounter three mysterious women who claim shipwrecked origins, but the more they stay, the more everything, their memories, loyalties, even reality, begins to feel haunted by something.
What gives 'The Drowned' its best moments is its mood. Clemens leans hard into establishing the right atmosphere. The low, flat beach house, the sea just beyond, the shifting light between dawn and dusk all help to create a quietly ominous world. Despite its lack of pretentions and mediocre aspects, such as some poor acting, it feels like a modern-day playground for myth. Those women feel very much like sirens, for example, with their allure, their ambiguity, the way they draw the men into a dangerous trance.
Clemens has talent as his formal choices (low lighting, tracking shots, occasional surreal black-and-white moments) show ambition and potential. And there are nice touches, like the way the painting (central to the heist) takes on a life of its own by the end - a metaphor, perhaps, for how art and myth can be more alive than we think.
But there are real drawbacks. The pacing is glacial as some scenes linger too long, and the dialogue never quite lands, making character motivations feel murky. Several critics reasonably argue that the mythological stuff is too on-the-nose, stripping away suspense by spelling out the parallels rather than weaving them subtly. For a film that's so much about ambiguity, the characters themselves can feel underdeveloped, more archetypes than people. And the acting, as I already implied, leaves much to be desired.
Still, for all its flaws, 'The Drowned' is compelling in its strangeness. As abstract horror, it's not a film for jump scares, but a psychological, myth tinged piece that I found interesting as I like films and stories that lean into legends, mood, and metaphor. But it could have been even better with more investment in the story, character development, and better actors.
