I have a somewhat irrational fear of dark water to begin with, so the curiosity to watch horror movies about it sometimes gets the best of me. Reading reviews of Beneath Still Waters lead me one direction, watching the movie, however, I was surprised at how much I disagreed with them.
In the mid to late 1960’s, in a remote town in northern Spain, a man named Mordecai Salas dabbles in the “dark arts”. He studied under the tutelage of Aleister Crowley and learned of a way to not only summon spirits from beyond, but extend his own life indefintely. He was seen as an evil man, and Roberto Borgia figures the only way to stop him is to flood the evil town behind a damn. Chaining Salas and a few of his followers to the floor of his home, Borgia makes sure that Salas will die and be forgotten underneath the waters surface. However, what Borgia didn’t count on was two young boys exploring just days before the flood, and unleashing Salas from his would-be watery grave.
Flash forward 40 years and Roberto Borgia has died. His daughter, Teresa, and grand daughter, Clara, now live in the tiny town of Desbaria, just off the banks of the damn where the flooded town of Marienbad lies in wait under the water. Strange things begin to happen just before the 40th anniversary of the damn. It starts with the disappearance of one of Clara’s friends Antonio in the waters above Marienbad. Teresa, a reporter and a photojournalist Dan, begin to look into the strange occurrences, but what they find is well more than they bargained for.
I am still trying to figure out what previous reviewers of this movie didn’t like. Not that I personally think this movie should have won any major award, but it doesn’t deserve some of the bad reviews it has received. Allow me to explain why I do think this is a good movie. Really, it can be summed up in one sentence; Subtlety and excess where it is needed.
As the people of Desbaria first start to disappear, we really only get a glimpse of what is killing them. The fact that the “black substance” is infecting people is obvious, but not over played. One of the girls gets it on her foot, and later we see her for a split second with a dark patch on her neck and face. One of the police officers gets some on his hand, as the movie goes on he starts to sweat and itch. Neither of these instances are thrown in your face, and the other characters in the movie never make mention of it. This plays much better in a movie than having the other characters or the infected themselves over reacting to their current circumstances. Giving the audience the benefit of the doubt that they will be perceptive enough to pick on it makes it feel so much more natural and realistic.
On the flip-side, evil is evil and not one to be subtle. This is why it is ok that the first time we see Mordecai he literally rips a kids head off. It’s meant to be a shock. It’s meant to make you realize that this guy is pure evil and will to do whatever it takes to accomplish his nefarious goals. Salas lets his actions speak to what he intends to do and there is no need for him to play coy or beat around the bush, so to speak. He is trying to bring about a new day where he is the ruler of all that he can grasp, and won’t let anything stop him. Salas’ power is infectious and manifests itself in several ways. One of them being a fog of evil and corruption that envelopes the people celebrating the 40th anniversary party. As they are having fun and partying, the fog creeps in and an ordinary party turns into a celebration in lust, excess, and debauchery. Worst party ever… or BEST party ever?
Beneath Still Waters also struck a chord with me in a weird morbid curiosity, sort of way. My mother-in-law lives on the banks of a mountain where the old town was submerged when they built a damn. This is in the mountains of Virginia, mind you, not some town in another country. I have often wondered what happened to that town, why it was submerged and if i had the money (or the balls) to dive in the water, what I would find. Probably nothing quite as evil as this movie portrays, but it’s that curiosity that will always be there for me.
All in all this movie is actually pretty good. In many ways it feels like a better produced horror movie throwback. If you can stomach the accents, sometimes bad acting and gore at times, it is a well done movie and worth seeing. My biggest issue with the film is it’s ending. It would have been fine to end it right after the resolution of the problem. There was no need for a stinger, or at least, not the one they included. In the end I didn’t really see enough wrong with the film to pan it, but if you are a stickler for the normal horror movie tropes, maybe this is one you should skip.
Commentaires