Nereus

Alright, I'll admit it, I was lured in by the movie's cover/poster. Yeah, it did seem interesting, and I didn't even bother reading the synopsis for the movie.

Perhaps I should, because this movie was so far from what I had initially expected given the movie's cover. The storyline here was flaccid and fairly pointless, and nothing much of any interest or particular outstanding importance happened throughout the course of the movie. Actually, I will go as far as to say that the plot was actually ludicrous and the movie suffered badly from the writing of Itziar Martinez and Georges Padey.

The movie wasn't particularly enjoyable or entertaining, although I did manage to sit through the entire ordeal, hoping that the movie would eventually become better and pick up its pace. Unfortunately, it never did, and it was a very monotonous and generic ride.

The acting in "Nereus" was actually fair, taking into consideration that the actors and actresses had very little to work with in terms of script, plot and storyline. And the fact that the characters were in fact faceless drones with little or no distinguishable personalities didn't really help the acting performers in any way,

"Nereus" was a disappointing foray into the horror movie. I managed to sit through the entire movie, and chances are equal to null that I will ever do so again, because the movie had no appeal this first time around.

How have these people ever been friends? There is so much infighting among them, that I'm wondering what the plot of the movie actually was. Every isolated horror movie about cabins/woods/abandoned asylums, houses, hospitals/lakes, have a certain amount of infighting, but this one was over the top. This movie could easily been made with a hours run time, if they had used the clips that actually pertained to the evil entity.

"Drowning Echo" is original in that the overall storyline is creative and offers many high concept ideas visually. There are elements of mythology, mysticism, and psychological thriller woven into the premise. And at times the film almost achieves an indie feel elevated above low-budget affair. The downfall is that there are far too many tropes fighting for space in both exposition and the horror element. No single one ever fully manifests enough to solidify "Drowning Echo" cohesively.

The acting is relatively quality work. The cast give committed performances and most characters come off as believable. There are a few moments that dialog feels forced, but never enough to cut the fluidity of the storytelling. The fault is in the sheer amount of unnecessary length of scenes and overdrawn sequences that weigh down the value of the moment and intent of the director. Then there is the whole middle section with unneeded found footage that just confuses the whole movie. Well it felt confusing to me. It takes things a bit left, and the story looses momentum.

The horror elements are a blend of classic CGI "paranormal-esque" tricks, and really cool atmospheric neon thriller elements. They work well to give some real good moments of shadowy, eerieness. The whole look of the movie is a credit to quality cinematography. The angles and lighting choices give classic horror vibe. The whole asthetic somewhere between late night TV mystery, and cable network melodrama.

Overall "Drowning Echo" will disappoint most horror fans looking for something a bit more straightforward. The overuse of varied concepts mingled together without a cohesive vision drag the entertainment value down some. However there are some cool moments and the idea that the director was going for is original. The problem is that nothing ever fully coalesced to allow "Drowning Echo" to reach it's potential completely. Even with the creature feature aspect of a hidden horror that could make poolside fun treacherous, this is a film to go into with lowered expectations.

Garbage to the 1000th power, stealing it's premise from the Abysss....crapola!

Now I'm not saying Nereus has a good concept, but it did have something there, it did have a competent SFX team, but they really messed it up.

It tells a very messy over convoluted story about an ancient entity with a connection to water and..........I'm really not going to describe it further because it's an absolute mess.

Part visual horror part psychological it's incredibly boring, the plot is a broken mess, the cast are interchangeable and really poor and the whole movie feels like the fraction of potential here was pissed away.

When something happens, it's actually quite good for a movie of it's ilk. But things don't happen very often and even when they do they' still don't deflect from the fact that the whole movie is a shattered all over the place mess.

The SFX guys and girls should distance themselves from filmmakers like these lest find their reputations tarnished.

Messy, unlikable tosh.

The Good:

Some interesting visuals

The Bad:

Stock scream

Absolute mess of a plot