Beneath Still Waters

After years producing and directing in the US, Brian Yuzna eventually left the States to set up shop in Spain; judging by the awful Beneath Still Waters, he's either been overdoing the Sangria or not taking enough siestas. Whatever the reason, it's hard to believe that this mess was directed by the same guy that gave us the twisted classic Society and the delightfully gory Return Of The Living Dead 3.

Yuzna's watery waste-of-time starts in the abandoned Spanish town of Marienbad, with two boys freeing Mordecai Salas, the leader of a Satanic cult, just as the area is about to be flooded by a new dam. Forty years later, as the locals prepare to mark the anniversary of Desbaria, the town that was built to replace Marienbad, a series of strange deaths occur which suggest that Salas, trapped deep beneath the water for so long, is about to surface. In order to save Desbaria, a photojournalist named Dan (Michael McKell), a TV news reporter, Teresa (Raquel Meroño), and her pretty daughter Clara (Charlotte Salt) must do battle with the supernatural forces that are intent on destroying the town.

Featuring a European cast who, with the exception of a couple of Brits, struggle with the English dialogue, Beneath Still Waters is a badly scripted, poorly acted and dreary piece of nonsense that is enlivened occasionally by some fairly decent gore and loads of nudity. Yuzna's direction is uninspired, there is far too much reliance on cheap digital effects during the many underwater scenes, and the story often makes little or no sense (eg. why does Salas wait for forty years under the lake before emerging?).

To be fair, Yuzna does manage one or two inspired moments—the best being the town's celebration, which turns into a debauched orgy—but with so much mundane drivel between the few high points, Beneath Still Waters deserves to sink without a trace.

In 1965, in Northern Spain, a dam will be built to bring progress to the location of Desbaria and the town of Marienbad is near to be completely flooded. Two boys, Teo and Luis, cross the security boundary to play in the evacuated town and Teo listen to voices in the abandoned church. They find a group of strange people chained in the watered basement, Teo releases their leader Mordecai Salas (Patrick Gordon) and is killed by him. Forty years later, in the celebration of the fortieth anniversary of Debaria Dam, the teenager Antonio (Damià Plensa) vanishes in the lake while swimming with his girlfriend Susana (Pilar Soto) and their friend Clara Borgia (Charlotte Salt). The police divers, with the support of the outsider photo journalist Dan Quarry (Michael McKell) that is filming the submerged Marienbad to write a matter about the town, try unsuccessfully to find the body. When eerie things happen in the spot, Dan and the local journalist and daughter of the builder of the dam Teresa Borgia (Raquel Meroño) disclose dark secrets about Marienbad, Salas and his evil cult of the power of the flame.

I am a big fan of Brian Yuzna, but "Beneath Still Waters" is a huge deception. The screenplay is a complete and flawed mess, with terrible development of characters and situations and many shameful lines. The acting in general is not good, and the lead pair shows no chemistry. The special effects are very reasonable, and I believe many actors and actresses have been dubbed in English. The sequence of the bacchanal recalls the disturbing cult "Society" in the debut of this great director. Unfortunately his two last works ("Rottweiler" and "Beneath Still Waters") are very disappointing. My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): "Mistério no Lago" ("Mystery in the Lake")

This movie wanted to be so much more than it turned out to be. A lot of potential in the story, but some rather poor director's work never made it come alive.

The movie itself is enjoyable to watch, if you can punch through the Spanish actors struggling with their English, and the sometimes laughable B-movie effects (although in other places the effects are once again quite good). The acting in many cases is amateuristic and very, very poor for all the people that are not main actors.

Some good make-up and special effects are a plus again however, but overall it leaves much to be desired. Your mileage may vary on this one, as it has its strong points and weak points. Some nice diving work and underwater camera-work. The atmosphere is there too, which makes for a nice setting despite the weak acting.

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 6--i mean a 4--or maybe a 7.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.

This movie is terrible. I don't know what the director was doing and I'm sure he felt the same way. The acting was terrible. There were characters with American, Spanish, British and what sounded like dutch, accents. I guess realism wasn't the number 1 priority. The acting was terrible, at best. That is more than I can say for the 'special effects' which comprised mainly of slow-motion(how 80s) and painfully clumsy green screen work. The monsters were about as scary as something out of an Ed Wood movie. I've seen toddlers make scarier monsters from play-dough. The plot was neither going here nor there. It was clichéd and methodical, yet still managed to be quite unfathomnnable. It seems the director was writing the script spontaneously and whatever popped into his head was hastily squeezed in. This movie is an insult to anyone who may have the misfortune to endure 92 minutes of unprofessional directing, poor special effects, poorer acting and an altogether mediocre performance and story line. I am still very surprised that this even made it to a theater and even more surprised I didn't walk out of it halfway. I guess it's like a gruesome car-crash where you cannot divert your eyes away even though you should. But in this case I'd rather be in the car crash and be spared the movie.