Rating: NR
Genre:
Horror
Release Date: 09/26/2006
SubTitles: English/Italian
Dubbed: English
Sound: DD5.1/DD1/DDM2.0
Run Time: 178 min
Flags: Adult Situations, Gore
Distributor/Studio: Noshame
The debut feature from Italian filmmaker
Mariano Baino,
Dark Waters is a gruesome
horror flick about a young woman named
Elizabeth with a terrifying secret. In search of answers about her mysterious childhood experiences,
Elizabeth falls in with a creepy group of nuns who seem to know everything about her and take her captive. Winner of the Vincent Price Award at the
Rome Fantafestival, the film has also been released as
Dead Waters.
~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
Perhaps the most exciting genre debut of the decade, Dark Waters is a stylish, frightening occult film with the Lovecraftian overtones of
Lucio Fulci and the visual flair of
Dario Argento, pointing to its creator,
Mariano Baino, as perhaps the next great Italian horror director.
Louise Salter (
Interview With the Vampire) stars as Elizabeth, who travels to a dark, gloomy island in search of her friend. What she finds instead is a frightening convent run by a hideous, blind nun (
Mariya Kapnist) and her homicidal followers. Befriended by young-nun Sarah (
Venera Simmons), Elizabeth seeks to discover the identity of her own mother, why her father was secretly funding the convent, and she wants to know what happened to her friend. Hallucinations of twin girls with blood-smeared mouths, beaches littered with thousands of dead fish, and gory murders haunt Elizabeth before she reaches her final confrontation with a horrible Lovecraftian demon. Richly textured and gorgeously photographed by
Alex Howe,
Dark Waters stands out visually for
Baino's use of flame. The director paints the coastal landscape with fire, torches, and candlelight the way
Argento paints with color, to striking and memorable effect.
Salter and Simmons are quite good in the leads, and the film generates more than its share of goosebumps despite a weak score by
Igor Clark. This atmospheric Italian-Russian co-production fulfills the promise shown by Baino in his previous cult short
Caruncula, and is a rare treat for horror fans.
~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
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