The Black Waters of Echo's Pond

I had the honor, I suppose, of seeing this as a convention last year. After a meet and greet with some of the cast and crew, the theater went dark and this movie flickered up on the screen. Roughly 7 minutes in, I turned to my friend and told him every plot twist we were going to see, the order the characters would die in, and how the movie would end. I was about 94% dead-on, and the row behind me started laughing out loud every time one of my predictions came true. The film looked alright and had a decent score, but the characters were not well written and the plot was so by-the-numbers it killed any chance for suspense to build. What we do get is some long slooow character development of several unlikable people and when the horror does kick in, it makes little sense and doesn't seem to fit the tone that led up to it. I hate to say it, because the cast/crew were very supportive and proud of their work, but I've essentially seen this movie before, and seen it done better. The only recommendations I can give are for James Duval and Robert Patrick, both of whom give inspired performances with pretty bare roles.

I was surprised when, after some time with effective atmosphere,a very weird, silly occurrence changed the film's tone. However...

1 - When its scary, its actually scary, featuring atmospheric scenes that build tension very well.

2 - When its funny, its actually funny, perhaps because of the contrast with the serious scenes, and actually handles the switch very well - usually it takes itself as seriously as any individual scene needs to be, which occasionally resulted what just happened, so perhaps this film isn't for everyone - it's very weird.

3 - I was considering actually dropping the rating of any horror film focusing on teenagers - fortunately these ones are fleshed out somewhat, and aren't nearly as annoying as the ones found elsewhere in the genre,

Nine friends take a holiday at a Victorian home on a private island and uncover a game that when played brings out the worst in each of them. Jealously, greed, hatred, lust, all of the things they keep buried deep inside themselves rise to the surface and come to a boil.

Something went terribly wrong when making this movie. It was written and produced by Sean Clark, one of the greatest human beings in the horror community. It stars James Duval, Danielle Harris and Robert Patrick... that alone should sell it to fans. Even the effects and story are pretty decent.

Despite this, something about it makes the film boring. Probably the directing, but it could be more than that. Duval in some scenes is great and in others makes no effort to act. Were not enough takes shot, or did he not have the heart? Almost as bad, the distributor (Anchor Bay) seemed to have no love for the film. Clark put together a nice package of extras (which he gives away for free) that Anchor Bay turned down. Why? A bad film is a bad film, but some features might have at least explained what happened.

THE BLACK WATERS OF ECHO'S POND has a great first half. It sees the usual group of unsuspecting youngsters - fleshed out with actual back stories and characterisation this time around - getting their mitts on a creepy old board game, a game which proceeds to bring out the very worst in these personalities. Soon, the players are turning on each other as past deeds and secrets come to life, and of course it all ends in murder.

The set-up is a neat one and packed with promise. The characters are far more interesting than you'd suspect and there's plenty of humour along the way too. The cast incorporates Robert Patrick (wasted in what is little more than a cameo), the 'Babysitter Twins' from DEATH PROOF & PLANET TERROR (their acting is poor to say the least), and scream queen Danielle Harris (HALLOWEEN 4).

A shame, then, that the second half is so lacklustre. All that set-up sort of melts away in favour of some very typical, completely ordinary stalk-and-slash sequences. Atmosphere disappears in favour of gory mayhem, and yet it's all very familiar and by rote. It's not that THE BLACK WATERS OF ECHO'S POND is particularly bad, because it's not; it's just that it's very ordinary, and it shouldn't be given that set-up.

Stumbling upon another horror movie that I had never heard about, and finding the movie's cover to be interesting, and given my life-long love of the horror genre, of course I needed no persuasion to sit down and watch "The Black Waters of Echo's Pond". Sure, I had no idea what I was in for here, so director Gabriel Bologna had every opportunity to bedazzle and entertain me.

The storyline in the movie was not one that was particularly entertaining. Sure it was watchable for what it was, but I didn't find it to be an outstanding horror experience. The narrative was too slow paced and there weren't really any thrills or scares in the storyline. Sure, maybe if you're right off of the boat and never seen a horror movie before, then "The Black Waters of Echo's Pond" might be scary. But for a seasoned horror veteran, this was a mere walk in the park. Writers Michael Berenson, Gabriel Bologna and Sean Clark delivered nothing out of the ordinary here.

It felt as if the writers were writing independently on the script from a base idea, but none of the three knew what the other two were writing. And that made for a somewhat befuddled and jumpy movie experience. The narrative was a bit all over the place, but failing to be all there at the same time.

The movie actually had some familiar faces and talents on the cast list, such as Danielle Harris, James Duval, Robert Patrick, Electra Stone, Elise Avellan and Richard Tyson. The acting performances in the movie were fair.

If you enjoy horror movies, then "The Black Waters of Echo's Pond" is not a movie that I would recommend you to rush out and track down a copy of. It just simply wasn't really worth sitting through 89 minutes of what director Gabriel Bologna brought to the screen. Sure, I managed to endure the movie and sit through it to the bitter end, but believe me I am never return to watch it a second time.

My rating of director Gabriel Bologna's 2009 movie "The Black Waters of Echo's Pond" lands on a generous three out of ten stars.