Half
the fun of watching Lionsgate DVDs is watching the trailers to foreign
horror movies they had secured the American distribution rights to. It
is about a one in three chance that the film is any good, but their
trailers highlight the right things (gore, ridiculous premise, red ban,
etc.) to put them in your queue. I am trying to think of one of these
features that I had not anticipated seeing (How dare streaming deprive
me of this.)
"Beneath
Still Waters" was one that I had high hopes for. Yes, a lot of the
distributor's films have decadent, Satanic orgies, but this film
(trailer) is based on the concept of a modern under water city. This
much makes it a cut above "Boy Eats Girl", "Cravings", "Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed", "Undead", etc.
In
1965, a dam was built to modernize Northern Spain. In the name of
progress, a town had to be drowned. No one was there of course, except
for the followers of the Satanic cult leader Mordecai Salas whom Mayor
Borgia intended to stop via the dam's construction.
For
40 years, the evil was left submerged, but shortly after the mayor's
death, Salas returns to destroy those who plotted his demise. As the dam's anniversary nears, madness spreads and zombies start to leave their watery tombs. The
only person who may stand in his way is Clara, Borgia's granddaughter,
but alcoholic photo journalist Dan Quarry and Clara's mother Teresa will
not allow the burden to be hers alone.
"Beneath
Still Waters" is amusing but that is a result of how corny it is. The
chaos is comical since the evil that none of our lead characters
experience is defined, and the underwater effects are just awful. There
is some great implied gore, but the meaning behind that just is not
there.
If
the feature had a sense of humor like directors Brian Yuzna's "Bride of
Reanimator", it could have been good DIY cinema. Still, the premise may
just have been too ambitious. At least for half ass CGI that is.
Just
because computers can create new worlds does not mean they should. If
you cannot afford the usually expensive effects, do not try to use them.
It comes across as insulting if your characters cannot properly
interact with the artificial. All of the underwater sequences are a
waste, so the film's gimmick is worthless. Because you do not care about
the selling point, you will not care about the rest of the movie.
With children being decapitated is a tough premise to green light. Takashi
Miike may have been able to make something out of the script for
"Beneath Still Waters", and that is because he is a master of cheesy CG.
Otherwise, this film was impossible to make without a sizable budget.
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