The Drownsman has a few nice concepts, while they might not be novel, these are still intriguing to some degree. It creates a good visual with simple use of water and contrasting light. The characters are predictable in their looks or bad decisions, yet surprisingly audiences could warm up to them. If there's anything that hampers the movie, it dives too much to the genre familiarities, to the point that some scenes are near identical with other horror flicks.
Madison (Michelle Mylett) has awkward accident as she slips in a pier and nearly dies from drowning. As she wakes up she is haunted by an entity that dwells on water. Things escalate as her friends try to perform faux cleansing and unwittingly share the cursed stalking. The movie protagonists consist of all female, almost like a sorority in jeopardy. Acting is decent overall, and it's good to say that the movie treats its cast with appreciation, it doesn't put them on bras and panties and splash some water on them, even though it has all the excuses to do so.
The lead Michelle Mylett is pretty good, although these girls can be interchangeable at times. The personalities don't stand out much, they are what audiences would expect from any horror films. You'd have the lead who is a victim and her skeptical friends, eventually they all run and scream the same. In fact The Drownsman borrows many other aspects from previous works like Final Destination or Friday the 13th. There's a random puddle, it may be a trap put by psychopath ghost to trip someone and brutally drown them.
Some of the scenes might not hit the mark, especially those which inspired by genre clichés such as ignored premonition or creepy warning by equally creepy characters. They come across as a tad silly, furthermore the logic isn't exactly neatly constructed. The antagonist might appear literally from a spill, but then again human body is mostly water, what if someone pees or does it have to be normal water. So many questions unresolved to plot holes.
While it's overly familiar and bizarre at some points, the movie looks good and it sprinkles enough mystery to pique audiences' curiosity, at least for a rental or movie night.
