Draug has a very small budget, probably even a microbudget, and it shows. Most of the critical reviews I've read of this movie on here really just read like people couldn't quite get over the fact that this movie didn't really have the budget to be doing a whole lot differently than it did. Really, if Draug had a hundred times the budget and had the special effects to match, some of these people would probably be head over heels about this movie.
If you get over the budget, this movie is fine. The pacing is good, the atmosphere is dark and brooding, and the colour palette fits the tone. The special effects are about as good as you're really ever going to get with a movie on a total shoelace budget like this. Overall, this is a very creepy movie and I think it's a good example of how to do a horror movie on a microbudget.
None of this is to say that this is a perfect movie. There are times when the pacing isn't quite perfect. Like, most of the comic relief moments are very heavily weighted towards the start of the movie, while I think it would have been better to have them spread out across the entire thing.
But is it terrible? God no. It does the horror elements very well, and that's basically what you want from a movie like this.
