Product Description

A remote, storm-swept islandÂ… a population of evolutionary throwbacksÂ… a forbidding Medieval monasteryÂ… a strange religious orderÂ… ancient, undying evil. After the death of her father, a beautiful Londoner travels to a desolate island to investigate the dead man's bequest of a large sum of money to be paid annually to the reclusive nuns of a local convent. Given little information from the secretive sisterhood or their blind Mother Superior, Elizabeth strikes out on her own with the aid of a helpful noviceÂ… and discovers the convent serves as a prison for an ancient aquatic demonÂ… whose awful wrath is held at bay only so long as the fragments of a stone amulet bearing the monsterÂ’s horrific likeness are kept separated. The first feature film by Mariano Baino is an unabashed love letter to the strange stories of H.P. Lovecraft and the color (and blood) drenched films of Mario Bava and Dario Argento. Filmed on location in Ukraine and making atmospheric use of the famed Odessa catacombs, DARK WATERS is an undeniably audacious debut Â… a sumptuously unsettling smorgasbord of disconcerting visuals and unnerving sounds that must be seen to be believed. DARK WATERS stars British actress Louise Salter (INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE) and Soviet performer Mariya Kapnist (Naina the Witch from Aleksandr PtushkoÂ’s RUSLAN AND LYUDMILLA) in her last film role.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #94028 in DVD
• Brand: Ryko Distribution
• Released on: 2006-09-26
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Color, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, Italian
• Subtitled in: English, Italian
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds
• Running time: 94 minutes

Amazon.com
Young Italian director Mariano Baino may hope to be the new Dario Argento, but he isn't there yet. In this cool box set that includes the cement medallion from Dark Waters, the feature, Dark Waters, is actually a weak link. Broaching the Italian Catholic subject of mysterious, demented nuns, Dark Waters tells the story of Elizabeth (Louise Salter), a sexy Londoner whose father has died and requested that she donate a portion of her inheritance to an isolated monastery in the Black Sea where her mother used to live, and where she was born. When Elizabeth visits, she becomes stranded, discovering that the nuns make blood sacrifices to appease a water demon, and her only confidant on the island, friend-turned-nun Sarah (Venera Simmons), turns out to be equally psycho. Candlelit sanctums, chanting, blind nuns, and bloody crosses liken this nunnery to a torture chamber, but the clichés ruin scary moments. Slow pacing in Dark Waters also lowers the scare factor. That said, the second disc featuring Baino's early shorts, is full of brief, eerie spectacles. "Never Ever After" is about a girl whose wish to rid herself of her body results in her beheading. "Caruncula" stars a grizzly serial killer, who is transformed into TV dinner upon encountering his match, a seemingly harmless young lady. In "Dream Car", a young man's demise is attributed to an evil red sports car. In these shorts, plots move along and gore happens faster, their ideas concise, original, and nightmarish, making the Dark Waters box set satisfying on the whole. --Trinie Dalton

Customer Reviews

Brooding, "Lovecraftian" Nightmare
From the previous reviews, it seems that one either really likes this film or really detests it. After a bit of reflection, I'll have to count myself in the first camp.

"Dark Waters" is definitely not a usual off-the-shelf, paint-by-numbers horror film. Its appeal (from my viewpoint) is more subtle and mature by far than the hack-'til-you-drop gore-fare that some use to define "horror" today. For me, the dread and horror in "Dark Waters" developed gradually as the film slowly brought the viewer to the point of realizing that he (or she) is inexorably entangled in the tentacles of an inescapable living nightmare. I found myself thinking that if H.P. Lovecraft had nightmares, and if a film crew could enter into them and capture their essence visually and psychologically, the result would not be unlike "Dark Waters."

The film certainly isn't for every taste. If you like lots of violent action, tons of gore and quick gratification, "Dark Waters" will be unsatisfying. But if you enjoy being slowly drawn into a vortex of nightmarish hopelessness in a setting very reminiscent to haunted Innsmouth (with truly crazed nuns perhaps standing in for the depraved Cult of Dagon), then I think you might give "Dark Waters" a viewing.

what are your choices?
Keeping in mind that this obscurity was made on the cheap in Russia in the early 90s, there are a lot of positives here. The director tried to make a straightforward atmospheric ode to Lovecraft in a style influenced by the Italian greats, no ironic postmodern jokey humor here to dilute things. There are too few horror films of recent vintage with that kind of lofty ambition and so I give the movie an extra star for that. Some of the other reviewers have complained that the movie is way too derivative: there's really no question that Suspiria, Inferno, and Phenomena in particular influenced the makers of this movie and there are a few obvious/deliberate visual swipes/hommages here and there, but I don't see that as a problem myself. I'd rather see work by a filmmaker perhaps overly influenced by great work than one by someone who's imitating a bunch of crap.

Several of the sequences have nicely done and memorable imagery, are well lit and shot, and overall the movie looks pretty darn good for the low budget. The look of it (lots of rain in an old remote seacoastal town populated by sinister natives) sort of made me think of Stuart Gordon's later Dagon, though the two have a very different approach in tone. The acting is surprisingly not bad: the lead, Louise Salter is pretty and talented and it's a shame that this seems to be really her only movie (and the director's as well). The problems? Well, there are many awkward transitions and moments of poor plot/factual exposition which gives the film a somewhat random cobbled together feel (although the same charge can be said of Argento or Bava or other Italian greats to be fair); some scenes particularly in the middle drag quite a bit; the whole thing should probably have been quite a bit bloodier honestly; the low budget is a problem in a few key places; and unfortunately, the director cannot resist the temptation to include some creature effects toward the end that wind up bringing the whole thing down rather than doing anything positive (Didn't anyone learn from Curse of the Demon? Many other films of course make this same mistake: see Carpenter's Mouth of Madness for another Lovecraftian style narrative from this time period that also blows it badly by showing more than it should).

Bottom line, if you are a fan of serious 70s/80s euro-horror (particularly of a supernatural bent), you should probably give this a shot and watch it (perhaps rent first then decide on a purchase). After all, despite the shortcomings, there haven't been that many films made for those with these tastes in recent years, so it's not like there's a ton of other choices waiting.

Amazon, you morons
This is a fine buy, if you like this type of film it is quite good. My reason for this review, however, is due to the fact that Amazon doesn't even bother to change their "editorial review" for different DVD releases. The editorial review refers to a two disc version of the film with bonus shorts, while the same item description is on both pages. These two releases are both by NoShame Films and have the same cover image, and I for one would have liked to see the short films. Thanks a lot Amazon...