Drowning Echo

"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.

I really did not think it was that bad, the acting was not that bad for amateur actors, I felt they all really gave their best, and although not great, it was a good start for them. I think people just didnt like them using the similar monster from the abyss - But I dont see any issues with that. I guess this is based on some old Spanish legend, and it was pretty weak but I have seen a lot worse many times. It did hold my interest through most of the movie, and there were times I rolled my eyes because there were some stupid moments, but nothing that i would condemn this film for. For a low budget film, it was actually pretty refreshing. If you watch a lot of low budget films, this one might be worth the while. The actors were pretty good looking, the leading lady was pretty sexy too, which helped a bit too!

I don't get it why they made it so long. So many scenes that could have been cut out, clearly stretching the time but not in its favor, so why put us though it.

Ok so the movie kinda had a plot really, tried to expand it, show us more, a few characters, some development there also but there was no reason to length it for so long. This would have worked far better for a 80 minutes movie, not even 90, just 80, quick, straight to the point without losing or annoying the viewer. I've seen many horror productions, and plenty of indies, but this one was too much even for me. Close to 2 hours and for what?

So all in all, I would never recommend it, because it never reaches its mark, its just swing and miss after swing and miss. I think it could be called Lady in the Water's little sister really. Just a bunch of nothing.

Cheers!

Genuinely tried to stick this out looking for a tiny shred of substance to continue watching the whole movie.... I just couldn't do it. 40mins of my life I want back.

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