Will reiterate this once again, as there are people accused of bias all the time and questioned why they watch things in the first place, there is no personal bias against films made on a modest or less budget. Also have a high appreciation for the horror genre, have liked a fair share of creature films and that 'Dead in the Water' had an all female cast was another interest point (that is not uncommon but haven't seen that a lot).
Unfortunately, 'Dead in the Water' was exactly like its very apt title, "dead in the water", very early on, never recovered and actually got worse. It is not irredeemable and not a complete and utter abomination, but it could have made something much more interesting and original with a concept that was far from new but still semi-intriguing, because it fails to do either. All of this is not being said with malice, have never felt or talked that way about any film, regardless of how angry it made me feel, actually did want to like it because it was not as if it didn't have potential. The potential wasn't enormous as such but it was there somewhat.
There are a few good things. It does look reasonably good and atmospheric mostly, in particularly it is a long way from being amateurishly shot and the editing is at least coherent.
Music is ominous enough and does fit, not feeling discordant with the action while never enhancing it as such.
Not much going for 'Dead in the Water' otherwise. Not all of the film looks great, the water is so obviously CGI-rendered and it looks incredibly fake. As do the creature effects, that would have been slightly acceptable 50 plus years ago but when you see how far technology and visuals generally have advanced over-time it is sad that it looks like they were made as an afterthought with no effect. Just as bad is that the enemy is not interesting or menacing at all, more unintentionally if anything else. The complete lack of suspense and thrills also severely hurt the film, replaced instead by interminably sluggish pacing, unnecessary padding, no attempt to do anything fresh or interesting with the numerous cliches and the increasingly over-the-top ridiculousness. Found myself not caring at all, having long lost interest, for any explanations offered, even then they felt very vague and pretty silly.
'Dead in the Water's' script flows very awkwardly and has very little life, some of the lines are difficult to take seriously and one has to refrain from laughing at times. The characters have no development to them and their stereotypical and over-the-top behaviours and personalities grate fast, there is nothing to make one engage with them when they are so bored and irritated by them from the very start. The acting is a painful mix of overdone and robotic.
Summing up, not completely awful but fell dead in the water too early and never recovered. 3/10
