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Beneath Still Waters (Widescreen)

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Beneath Still Waters (Brian Yuzna, 2005)

I'd probably have passed the one up altogether were it not based on a Matthew Costello novel. I had no idea when I sat down to watch it that it was directed by Stuart Gordon protege Brian Yuzna, who's done some very interesting stuff over the years (though, to be fair, some not-so-interesting stuff as well). Yuzna, as Gordon before him (with Dagon), heads over to Spain, presumably to make a cheaper movie, casts a few minor personages on their way up and some established Spanish stars, and injects as much Lovecraftian silliness into this manuscript as he possibly can. But for the production values and Yuzna's slightly less-steady hand, this might as well be a Gordon flick, and I mean that as praise.

In 1965, the small Spanish town of Marienbad is to be flooded when a dam is built to supply power to the new neighboring town, Desbaria. Two children are investigating the town before it gets flooded, and they discover something horrific-- four people chained in the basement of one of the houses. One of them sets the leader free and is killed for his troubles; the other flees, retreating into insanity for the rest of his days. Fast-forward to the fortieth anniversary of the dam, and Desbaria is putting on a celebration. It's drawn Dan Quarry, a journalist (Michael McKell, of the long-running daytime soap Doctors) who's doing a story on the sunken town, and Teresa Borgia (Raquel Merono, who showed up-- surprise!-- in Dagon), daughter of the last mayor of Marienbad and the first mayor of Desbaria, a plucky news reporter. (For there must always be a plucky news reporter.) Teresa's daughter, Clara (Charlotte Salt, of the upcoming Beowulf), London born and bred, is desperately bored with the small town. Until all hell breaks loose, that is. Clara's grandfather appears to her in dreams, warning her that the leader of the local coven of Satan-worshippers is going to return. You guessed it, it's the guy the kid set free in the opening sequence. And so Clara, with indirect help from her mother and Quarry, have to find a way to put an end to said cultist's evil machinations.

First off: if you're familiar with the Gordon/Yuzna axis, especially in the last decade or so, you should be well aware that what you're getting is going to be a low-budget cheesy movie. No nine-figure budgets to be found in Yuzna movies. So you can't go in expecting a glossy Hollywood production; a good part of movie appreciation is being able to look at things through the right frame. You have to expect barely credible acting (at most), a completely off-the-wall script, inconsistent direction, etc. In other words, this ain't Spielberg, and you should have lower standards when viewing it. Once you're on that level, Beneath Still Waters delivers pretty well. McKell gives the kind of performance you used to get from action-movie heroes, back in the day-- gritty, somewhat understated, resigned to the fact that if he has to save the world and die in the process, well, that's his job. The rest of the performances aren't all that great, but Yuzna takes the time-honored cheesy low-budget movie tactic of simply having everyone overact to the point of parody, and it's all okay. The effects are surprisingly decent (in spots, just as in Dagon) for a production of this level, and the script, while not exactly watertight, certainly isn't bad. The movie woke a desire in me to read the book, at least, and see what they changed to put all this into movie form, besides the names of the towns. ** ½

I just finished watching this film on the Sci-Fi channel. I really thought this film was well done and had a descent story. There is alot of gore, some nudity and what I thought were good special effects. Granted this was the 92 minute edited fullscreen version so I can`t wait until I receive the unedited 100 minute version in widescreen.

wow,this thing is really all over the place.sometimes the acting is not bad.at other times,it' not good at all.the dialogue ranges from decent to lame.sometimes there's just no context.the tone is a mess.i can't tell if it was supposed to be a thriller, or a black comedy,or a parody.sometimes this thing is just so over the top,it's ridiculous.then,all of a sudden it switches gears,and it seems like it's trying to be serious.there's really more than one movie here.i guess it was an entertaining mess,if nothing else.i give it a 2--no wait--a 5--i mean a 4--or maybe a 3.wait a minute.i'm all over the place.kinda like this movie.i can't give it a rating.i wouldn't know where to start.but since i have to,i guess a 2* rating is as good as any. 2/5

Nothing of any interest here. Rent something else!

This is a Spanish film shot in English with Spanish actors - so expect a huge latitude of accents (from laughable to hilarious). The story starts from a promising (an old village submerged by a big dam) and sinks fast into cliché (there was a devilish population of orgiastic devil worshipers there who suddenly come back 40 years after the fact to get some revenge).

The film could have been a nice thing if it was not for an ultimately bad script that boosts laughable characters, laughable situations, a contrived story and many many many genre clichés. The effects are not bad, but one would expect better ideas.

Mr. Yuzna, who is a talented director, keeps working with bad scripts and ruining his reputation. He should make less films and better ones. This is a Spanish quickie project made to exploit the relationship between the Spanish producer and the American distributor. Beware!

European horror movies have a particular brand of charm that makes them unique. Only in a European horror film will you see a hot blonde mulling over the possibility of life after death as she takes a dip in a skin-tight swimsuit. European horror, it seems, wants to be philosophical and promiscuous at the same time.

It begins with two boys, Teo and Luis, who stumble across the flooded remains of an abandoned church. Venturing inside, they find people tied up and in obvious distress, so poor Teo does what anyone might do - release them. Big mistake, as this frees Mordecai Sales (Patrick Gordon, doing his best Julian Beck impression), who is some sort of demonically-powered cultist. Mordecai enjoys getting really intimate with his victims - you could say he's fond of deep kissing, if that deep kiss happens to involve ripping your jaw open and biting your tongue.

It's pretty clear from the beginning that the normal taboos American horror films avoid, like mutilating children, won't hinder Spanish producer Brian Yuzna. And in that regard Beneath Still Waters is eager to shock, be it bizarre orgy scenes, over-the-top demonic worship by priests and nuns, or priests and nuns molesting goats in an orgy scene. American cinema did all this in the 70s; if you see something like this nowadays it's usually played with a wink. Yuzna plays it straight though, which gives the whole film a surreal retro vibe.

Forty years later, the town of Marienbad is celebrating the anniversary of the Desbaria Dam. Thanks to the Dam the town is dry, but Desbaria is forgotten, submerged by the floodwaters and long forgotten. Enter journalist Dan Quarry (Michael McKell) and news reporter Teresa Borgia (Raquel Merono). As the granddaughter of the previous mayor of Marienbad, Teresa's daughter Clara (Charlotte Salt) has a special connection to the town's sordid past. It seems that with the passing of Teresa's father (Clara's grandfather), the curse has returned. We know this because the old coot keeps showing up to warn the Borgias, which unintentionally evokes the goofiness of Evil Dead II.

There's no real rhyme or reason to how the curse works. It involves a book, a burning flame, and the aforementioned lust and violence. There's lots of nudity and some creative gore, but Beneath Still Waters is at its best when it evokes the spookiness of a murky lake. Water can be creepy - the Ring is the movie to beat in this regard - and when Yuzna tries to be quietly disturbing, the effect is unsettling.

But he's much more interested in random carnage. With the exception of Quarry, none of the protagonists really have a plan. The Borgia's run around screaming, ping-ponging from witnessing one twisted scene to another. They are primarily vehicles to get the audience to watch weird stuff happen, which is interesting the first time but gets old fast.

The special effects range from pretty good to embarrassingly bad, but the acting never goes beyond mangled accents and people screaming. The plot doesn't make much sense and the editing is so choppy that you might wonder if you missed something. You didn't - Yuzna wants to evoke a theme, a mood, a style, and occasionally he does. But these disturbing vignettes do not a compelling movie make. If you're not a fan of this style of horror, the "twist" ending definitely won't change your mind.

If this were my first time watching this, I definitely would've only given it two stars. I'll get to that soon.

This film, which involves an occult force, the leader of which is able to summon a supernatural power than slowly corrupts the town, not surprisingly has something of a Lovecraftian feel to it - well, the kind of feel that usually comes with movie adaptations of Lovecraft stories at least, which isn't so good, but moving on...

Good: Actually the earlier parts of the movie succeed in achieving an ominous feel with disappearances, signs that "something" is not right in this town and such. The back story flashback that appears later is creepy and... er, some of the characters had potential I guess. The cult lead is kind of intimidating.

Bad: Narrative seems to skip from the mother to the daughter abruptly and sometimes in confusing ways. Most central characters didn't get enough focus. The pacing towards the end felt rushed. The cult leader's powers aren't well-defined and he seems to gain new abilities out of nowhere, and not even for the sake of plot.

So yeah, bad overwhelms good here. Unfortunately.

But here's the thing: like most DVD's I buy here, I saw the movie on TV first - a few times actually - and... well, obviously I liked it (well, moderately enjoyed it at least)otherwise I wouldn't want the DVD (this is why I don't give many negative reviews here). I think that I can re-watch it says something, at least, considering the runtime.

The story is simple. Evil worshiper supposed to be drowned with his town is freed and lives until he can get revenge on the people that tried to kill him. He and his followers invade a small town near the location of his old town and possess the towns people except for two young teenmagers bent on saving thier town. What i dont get is in one second the town is perfectly sane and in the next they are eating each other and having sex in the streets. How this change occured is never really explained. Just Sane one minutes, totaly under satans control the next. Somehow the cult leader is able to possess people. Its a film that had potential but its many many flaws make it a failure. You are left with to many unexplained questions after the credits.

PS> Its a complete Rip-off of the cthulhu universe created by HP Lovecraft

I saw this on the Sci-Fi Channel, it was actually one of their better movies. Forty years ago, some cannibalistic Satan worshippers were chained up in a house and the waters behind a newly built dam were allowed to rise until they were drowned beneath it. Unfortunately, minutes before the water rose, a kid was exploring the town and let the head bad guy go.

Flash forward 40 years. Some evil force has awakened and people are starting to turn up dead. The main characters are a TV reporter (hot babe!) who's quite likable and her daughter (hot babe #2!) who has lost her friend to the mysterious force. There's also another reporter, this one a guy, who shows up to be the hero. I didn't much care for him, he's basically a jerk. This is one of those movies where every secondary character has a lot of personality, and that makes the whole thing quite a bit more fun. They also throw in one of those scenarios where the big 40th anniversary of the dam is soon to be celebrated, biggest event in the town's history, yadda yadda yadda. As if we needed to see that played out for the 1,000th time.

Overall, if you like low budget horror movies, with a couple of hot babes (who actually look like mother and daughter), well, this one isn't too bad. The plot moves along at a fair pace and although this certainly isn't any sort of masterpiece, it succeeds in keeping the B-movie lover entertained for 90 minutes.

if you enjoy soft porn this is the movie for you !! this could have been a good movie but some where along the way they lost the script so they just had women run around nude and threw in a very graffic sex orgy

Director Brian Yuzna's Beneath Still Waters (2005) is a supernatural tale where the various pieces don't quite mesh, but the film does feature some thrills, gore, uneven special effects, and a little sleaze, as an ancient evil previously held in check by floodwaters, is released.

The story begins in 1965, in the Spanish village of Marienbad, where members of an evil cult have been captured and imprisoned in a basement, along with a book connected to their evil powers. Mayor Roberto Borgia (Richard Borras) has authorized that a damn be built so that a lake will be created, submerge the town, and stop the evildoers. Unfortunately while the waters are still rising, two boys wander into the town and mistakenly free Mordecai Salas (Patrick Gordon) the leader of the cult. One of the boys is killed, while the second named Luis, manages to escape. Eventually the whole town is submerged, and a lake is formed over what was once Marienbad village.

Putting aside that imminent domain on this grand a scale seems far beyond the authority of a town mayor, the story jumps forward into the present, where photojournalist Dan Quarry (Michael McKell) is shooting in the lake for a documentary. TV reporter Teresa Borgia (Raquel Merono) is doing a story on the history of the area, as a celebration of the 40th anniversary of the flooding, is set to take place. Teresa's daughter Clara (Charlotte Salt) is at the lake with some friends, when one of them mysteriously disappears while in the water, triggering a police investigation. Eventually Quarry and Teresa team up, and speak to Luis (Manuel Manquina), now an adult, and living in fear of Mordecai Salas's return. Luis tells them much about the past, but proves to be quite unstable.

Cara's grandfather was the mayor who arranged for the flooding. He warns Cara that after he dies, she will be in danger. After his passing, Cara has strange visions involving her grandfather and Modecai Salas. Salas and some of his followers have already returned to the world of the living, and begun to spread their corruption. Under the influence of the growing evil, the 40th anniversary celebration turns into a hedonistic orgy, while Salas makes Cara the focus of his attention. Things enter a whacky new dimension, when Quarry dives down to the underwater village, to recover and then destroy the magical book.

As the supernatural elements take over, the focus gets a bit too spread out. The special effects are spotty, particularly the underwater scenes, but the kills and gore are generally done fairly well, as are the practical effects for things like some animated corpses. Modecai Salas makes a decent enough villain, but his potential for evil isn't exploited as well as it might have been. The story has some rough spots, but Brian Yuzna (Bride of Re-Animator, The Dentist, Progeny, Beyond Re-Animator) does what he can, with the budget available. Beneath Still Waters isn't great by any means, but it may be a slightly better film than the ratings here indicate.