Beneath Still Waters (2005) User Reviews

The Town of Evil

[claudio_carvalho · 4/10 · 10 July 2007]

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")

Brian Yuzna is beginning to lose his touch.

[crazygunnar · 5/10 · 16 May 2006]

Brian Yuzna is a director who almost never has disappointed me. He's inventive and he knows what fans wants. The only ones that I haven't liked is "The Progeny" and "Tarzan: The Epic Adventures TV Movie". But after moving to Spain to join Filmax developed label Fantastic Factory things have begun to go downwards. I really liked "Beyond Re-Animator" but his "Rottweiler" was just terrible. I was very, very disappointed with that movie. And now we have "Beneath Still Waters".

The story is about a water filled ghost town with a dark past. Strange things are happening and people are showing up dead. A female reporter and a newly arrived photo journalist are teaming up to investigate the surroundings. Sounds pretty good to me.

First I must say I liked it a whole lot better than "Rottweiller" but it still left me very unsatisfied. Things aren't developed very good, the characters are not that interesting, the gore is there but it leaves much more to be desired, there's too little monster action, we've seen the ending hundreds of time before etc.

I'm not saying I didn't like it, I was just expecting more. Some good diving footage, one cool monster, some tension and atmosphere, a cool beginning, Diana Peñalver ("Braindead") in a small part. But overall a rather tame effort by Yuzna. You can do better.

A dammed mess (dammed...damned...geddit? Oh never mind...).

[BA_Harrison · 3/10 · 3 December 2007]

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.

How could this go so wrong?

[Obliviax · 2/10 · 15 October 2006]

As a longtime Yuzna fan, I was absolutely delighted when I heard of this project. I happened upon the novel on which this film is based many years ago, and it's always stuck with me - there are some genuinely creepy ideas (and moments) in there. Great director, good source material... what could possibly go wrong?

A great many things, apparently.

The acting and dialogue are stilted, the atmosphere (which should just create itself, given the setting) simply isn't there, and the dreadful scene-chewing performance of Patrick Gordon as the villain of the piece deflates any sense of dread one may have had. Even the one decent monster effect is wasted in a brief and poorly-sequenced shot. As much as it pains me to say, Mr. Yuzna seems to have hit a bit of a slump. Do yourself a favour - skip this one and watch "Beyond Re-Animator" instead.

Waste of time

[GarryJohal · 2/10 · 26 August 2006]

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.

Mediocre terror picture from Fantastic Factory about weird events happen when a location is flooded

[ma-cortes · 4/10 · 3 September 2013]

The picture packs thrills, chills , terror and lots of blood and gore . Horror and fantasy based on a novel "Beneath Still Waters" by Matthew Costello with screenplay by Angel Sala , though partially inspired by the master H.P. Lovecraft . A forgotten legend lives again , half a century ago they thought they had buried this horror forever. But you can't kill what was never really alive . And the massive stone walls of the Dam must soon burst and what was an incredible myth, will become a deadly reality . Everyone's been evacuated - just the church, the homes, the abandoned shops remain . Only the eerie buildings...still hiding secrets that no one suspects . The two boys walk through the doomed ghost town . But the boys discover that the town isn't quite deserted . Time passes, and the whispered secrets of the town have been long forgotten. But now, fifty years after vanishing, the sunken town comes alive again. A boy vanishes swimming on a moonlit night while his girlfriend Susana (Pilar Soto) and their friend Clara (Charlotte Salt) looks on . Meanwhile , a cameraman diver Dan Quarry (Michael McKell) is shooting the submerged Marienbad and a TV reporter (Raquel Meroño) discovers ancient secrets .

"Beneath Still Waters¨ tells an incredible story of terror , monster killers and including fantastic touches . B-entertainment with a fairly suspenseful and horrifying story about an old fanatic cult , an evil being and his followers . As it packs horror , suspense , plot-twists , tension , chills , guts , thrills with sensationalistic scenes . This tale about a journalist mother and daughter of the builder of the dam played by Raquel Meroño , her daughter performed by Charlotte Salt and a diver acted by Michael McKell , all of them are involved into a twisted as well as terrifying intrigue begins well and grows more and more until a downbeat finale . Spanish secondary cast is pretty good but frankly wasted playing ridiculous roles , there appears notorious actors , such as Manuel Manquiña , Jose Maria Pou and Diana Peñalver who starred the Peter Jackson classic titled ¨Braindead¨. The film contains tension , thriller , drama , mystery , twists and shocks , including decent scares with tense sequences especially in its final part , in a unexpected denouement . There is a homage to Jacinto Molina when in the city of Marienbad before it floods , the boys throw rocks at posters for ¨Creature from the Black Lagoon¨ or ¨La Mujer y Monstruo¨ and "El Rostro de la Bestia," which has credits for Paul Naschy and Brian Yuzna ; there is no such movie, but Yuzna did direct Naschy in 'Rottweiler (2004)'. The flick was finely produced by the chairman of Filmax and Castelao Productions , Julio Fernandez who along with his brother Carlos Fernandez are two successful producers and experts on Horror genre , producers of hits as ¨The machinist¨ ,¨ Fragiles¨, ¨Darkness¨, ¨Rec 1¨, ¨Rec 2¨ , ¨Rec 3¨ and many others . Good makeup on the freakish half-human creatures . Passable images about the sunk village and dam explosion , both of them are made by means of computer generator . Colorful cinematography by Johnny Yebra filmed on location in Boadilla del Monte, Navas del Rey and Pelayos De la Presa, Madrid, Spain .

The motion picture was regularly directed by Brian Yuzna ,a gore and guts expert director (Faust, Dentist 1,2 , Society, Bride Reanimator). Often uses harsh, bright lighting and soft blue hues in his movies . Brian Yuzna along with Stuart Gordon are important American filmmakers expert on terror cinema , both of whom working for Castelao , Fantastic Factory or Filmax . Rating : Average but some moment entertaining.

Extremely poor showing from Brian Yuzna

[The_Void · 4/10 · 19 October 2008]

I'd heard nothing but bad things about this film; but decided to track it down anyway simply because it has so much promise. For a start it was directed by Brian Yuzna' part of the creative genius behind Re-Animator and director of horror masterpieces Society and Return of the Living Dead 3; and secondly, the plot; which is based on a book by Matthew Costello, sounded like a great base for a horror movie. I figured that with these two elements in place, things couldn't possibly be as bad as I'd heard. Well...to say things went wrong would be an understatement. The plot focuses on a Spanish village named Marienbad; a place where the locals are gradually succumbing to a Satanic cult lead by a man named Mordecai Salas. Someone or other has hatched a plan involving building a dam to flood the town and it's inhabitants; but the plan fails when a couple of no good kids end up freeing the cult leader before the town is engulfed in water. Fast forward forty years and the village of Desbaria stands in its place; though the cult leader is waiting for his revenge.

The film gets off to a really good start as we watch a couple of kids traverse across a flooded town and into a brilliantly realised Satanic church where they are greeted by a group of bewitched locals. But once this is over and we move into the present day, things start to go downhill. The main problem with the film is that it's a mess. There are a handful of good ideas but they haven't been put together coherently which takes most of the credibility away from the film. The film also feels very cheap; the poor acting doesn't help in this respect, and neither does the turgid script which is littered with trite lines of dialogue. The film does feature some nice locations, which is nice, but that's really the only good thing I have to say about it. Anyone who has seen more than a few Brian Yuzna films will know that the director likes to let things descend into chaos so he can show a wave of graphic images; and that happens here, but it's not as good as it was in the likes of Society and really just caps off a very disappointing effort. I wouldn't hesitate to name this as Yuzna's worst alongside Faust: Love of the Damned, and only hardcore fans need apply.

all over the map

[disdressed12 · 14 March 2010]

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.

Terribly Boring

[boyinflares · 2/10 · 7 November 2006]

"Beneath Still Waters" has an interesting premise, but fails miserably on all levels, making it in effect, terribly boring. While the three leads give decent attempts of depicting characters you care about, their attempts do not pay off. The story plods along at an unbelievably slow pace, and the film is plagued by a terrible score and bad computer generated images. "Beneath Still Waters", with its misleading tag-line of 'Fear Rises' should not even be classified as a horror (or b-grade horror) because it is simply not scary. Oh, and the film is majorly distracting because there are an unbelievable amount of different accents in the film when really there is no need for that many.

Horrific - in quality not in the scares stakes

[gleong-1 · 3/10 · 14 September 2006]

This is simply a horrific film - not because it was a scary movie, but in how very truly bad it was in every department.

Acting was mostly hammy, especially the Spanish cast. The boy whose mother leaves in the care of Clara the baby sitter, cannot decide whether or not he is supposed to be scared to death or be slightly amused when unmentionable things happen to his mother. Only the hero (played by B list English actor Michael Mckell) seems to be able to cope with a horrendously bad script. This however is slightly tarnished by his admission - in the "Bonus Features" interviews - that he has never performed a screen kiss before. The other cast interviews are really sad - all of them pretending they are in the best horror movie of all time.

Worst scene of the movie: The extended orgy scene wins hands down, with the climatic re- animation of the drowned baddies (can't reveal more than this) coming a close second.

The story itself is hardly original and is based on the novel by Matthew Costello. I certainly won't bother to read it now. However if the novel was a good one at all, the screenplay has certainly managed to mangle it.

The only moment in the special effects department that lives up to schlock director, Brian - The Re-animator - Yuzna's reputation is a gleefully monstrous scene when the local constable is discovered hysterically self-dismembering! Thank you, but even that did not make the movie worth wasting 90 minutes on.

AVOID THIS LIKE THE PLAGUE.

I am just confused!

[Biffe · 2/10 · 6 October 2006]

The reason I am saying this, is simply because I don't understand the thought and the planing behind this movie.

The story is really thin! The acting is horrible! The monsters are just plain stupid! This would be, to keep it short, a really bad movie, but..., (and this is what makes me confused) the effects are not that bad! The score is also quite good and the directing is not to bad either! Maybe the negative aspects of the movie, makes the positive ones seem REALLY good and vice versa, but there was something that kept me watching this film.

I thought that it had to be some professional and experienced people that where part of the team behind this movie, since the sound, the directing and the effects where above average, but why would these people accept such terrible acting and bad storyline? I hoped that they just had to have taken some action and made a difference sooner or later before the movie ended! Something had to come up, that would make this movie worth watching before the end credits started! The movie just kept going and finally it ended!

Nothing, of what I thought would happen, happened! This movie SUCKED and all I can think about afterwords is how some aspects of this movie where really good and some where terrible?!? Why not pay to get better actors and a better story and rather cut the budget a little on the effects and the score? That would have made this movie at least average, instead of "rock bottom"! Or, to put it this way, how can a director that can direct and a good special effects team, settle for all this other crap that this movie contains? Did they not see it?

If everything in this movie was bad, I would understand, that would make sense, but this mix of top and bottom, I do not understand! Let this director, this composer and this special effects -team make a movie another time and hire new people fill in the rest of the staff! Then maybe, just maybe, they can make a movie that don't waste 92 min. of my life!

Enjoyable Horror Movie

[ladymidath · 8/10 · 17 July 2023]

I have to admit that I picked up the DVD because I liked the cover, it was only a couple dollars so what the hey. I am glad I did though because this ended up being a pretty good horror movie. A couple of young boys in Northern Spain evidently to visit their old town that is being flooded to created a huge lake for their new town. What the boys found trapped was unspeakable evil that escapes after murdering one of the boys. Years later, he returns to destroy the town and its residents.

This is a pretty entertaining movie with some memorably gory moments and a town celebration that turns into an orgy. The actors all do a competent job, with a very sinister and creepy big bad wreaking havoc in order to exact his revenge.

I don't understand why all the negative reviews as this is a watchable horror film.

Sets Up Well But The Wheels Fall Off

[aimless-46 · 6/10 · 30 September 2010]

While nothing to rush out and buy, Brian Yuzna's 2005 film "Beneath Still Waters" is not nearly as bad as the negative comments would indicate. It's a decent premise with quality production design, it puts most of its respectable budget on the screen, Charlotte Salt is very easy to look at, and it features the most effeminate looking warlock in cinema history for some needed (although probably unintentional) comedy relief.

The negative reaction mostly comes from an extremely weak ending and a final moronic twist that takes about 10 IQ points off the target audience. But compared to the staggeringly lame low budget garbage going direct to DVD these days "Beneath Still Waters" is a breathe of fresh air.

Things set up nicely with an interesting flashback scene to 1965 when a damn project flooded a valley in Spain and submerged the village of Marinbad. The reason for this is slowly revealed during the first half of the film as it is tied to a supernatural force which has caused several recent deaths in the town and appears to be structurally weakening the damn on the eve of the new village's 40th anniversary celebration.

The last third of the film is like a bad remake of Jaws 3-D (1983), degenerating into a low budget disaster movie. Just substitute a damn, a lake, an effeminate warlock, and a partying hard group of villagers for the Sea World glass tunnels, the ocean, the mean shark, and a bunch of partying park guests.

Salt is the best reason to watch. She has several scenes with her recently deceased grandfather's spirit; which are nicely done and genuinely creepy. The special effects are not overdone and the only genuinely lame character is the village's "Ed Wood" type police captain.

The DVD is closed captioned which is getting to be an indicator of technical quality. And the lack of a commentary feature is good sign that the director is grounded in reality.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

Very interesting start

[Angel_Peter · 3/10 · 6 December 2009]

There after it gets worse for every minute.

The actors are most likely better in an ordinary high schools drama class, than the ones they cast for this movie. The children was alright though, but the adult actors.......

The actions of the characters are so stupid that you think a 5 year old have scripted it.

Well you can say it started so well and ended very bad. I hope this instructor never makes a movie again.

In many really bad horror movies you at least ends up getting some good laughs. Even this failed here.

We Don't Give a DAM!

[Coventry · 3/10 · 17 March 2008]

Brian Yuzna was already responsible for some really crazy and unusual horror projects in the past; some of them refreshing and original ("Society", "The Dentist") and other ones unspeakably terrible ("Rottweiler"), but "Beneath Still Waters" is undoubtedly the most discouraging effort he was ever involved in. This film certainly doesn't look as if it were directed by someone with over twenty years of experience in the genre, because the wholesome simply feels amateurish and unfinished. How can a concept holding so much horrific potential result in such a boring and incoherent mess? How can one film feature so many exquisite filming locations, nauseating make-up effects and thoroughly depraved themes and still turn out a complete failure? I love macabre tales handling about sunken villages and the dark secrets that drowned with them. There are way too few films like this in the horror genre and of the two I encountered during the past year, one is obscure as hell and remains unreleased on DVD to this date (the modest Swiss production entitled "Marmorera") and the other one - this particular film - is a missed opportunity. There are a lot of things going on in "Beneath Still Waters", but only very little of them make sense and it seems as if Yuzna doesn't want you to care about any of the characters and the grim ordeals they are facing. The events take place in a remote Spanish village, days before the great 40th anniversary celebration of the dam that prevented the area from flooding and the subsequent foundation of a brand new town called Desbaria. Few people know, however, the dam initially served to deliberately drown the entire town of Marienbad, because all the inhabitants were gradually joining the satanic cult led by Mordecai Salas. Two ruthless boys accidentally saved Salas from a watery death right before the town sunk entirely, and he has been waiting forty years now to seek revenge on the descendants of the previous mayor. So … what we have here is, without exaggerating, one of the most promising horror premises of the past two decades AND you can also add several dynamite sub themes like nudity, child-kill, underwater zombies and even a totally gratuitous orgy complete with nuns and chickens! Can someone please tell me where exactly this idea went wrong? Yuzna leaps from one subject to another without paying attention to continuity and for some reason he also inserts numerous tedious elements. All the main characters are bland and of course the really wooden acting performances of the ensemble cast don't help. Most of the players appear to be dead long before their characters drown in the lake or become "consumed" by the living mucus & seaweed. Such a dam(n) shame, because the Spanish filming locations are genuinely ominous! For the proper grim use of picturesque Spanish villages, please check out "Dagon" and "The Nun", which are both films Yuzna produced but not directed himself.

Atmospheric, but not very good.

[wolfbeast · 4/10 · 21 October 2006]

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.

Lots of talking, and not much else.

[cptnkeyes · 1/10 · 16 May 2009]

Easily a movie with no redeemable qualities to it. The acting was bad if they were even trying, the story was carbon copy: people stumble into evil and must stop it, and the action and horror was FEW and far between. I honestly could not finish what is with out a doubt the worst movie I have ever seen, I made it to 1 hour 16 minutes and I could not stand any more of it. The previews of it mad me so excited, but the actually movie was a let down. Save your self the time and don't watch it.

Everything could have been fine if it chose a side. Horror or Suspense: pick one. The few moment of terror were cool, but they happened only a few times. There was a TON of story build up and character development, perfect for a suspense movie.

awful awful awful , waste of my freak-in time :(

[dayday_is_the_one · 1/10 · 29 September 2011]

now I'm no expert in directors , producers and all that B.S. no offense that stuff takes memorizing blablabla but i can tell you i am an expert in actors (acting), special effects, plot and all the on screen stuff, that being said . This movie lacks all the above. The actors were horrible , special effects (what special effects?!), plot (i didn't realize this movie had one, it looked like a bunch of unorganized scenes to me) what i don't understand is how this movie ever got to a theater, there should be some sort of comity to prevent us from watching stupid useless movies like "Beneath still waters" . seriously DON'T WATCH THIS MOVIE , not now not ever , not when your bored, nothing else to do, NEVER . You cant say i didn't warn you .

Hmmm. . . Why Only 1 Star? Read to find out.

[sherman-oaks-1 · 1/10 · 24 August 2012]

It was a terrible friggin movie. Not sure where to begin. The box makes it seem like a horror movie that takes place by the beach or something. But nope, it's a lake. A small lake. No scary moments. No scares. No jumps. No acting. No monster/killer. Just terrible acting, terrible directing and worse story. Stay away.

And because I have to have 10 lines of dialogue, I'm going to talk about a movie I did like that had a beach and a lake. It's called Lake Placid. And it was awesome.

Another horror flick with a lake or beach that I liked was any of the Friday the 13th films.

Disappointing

[rcbridii · 2/10 · 28 November 2007]

I'm a fan of Yuzna, but this movie sucked. It was boring. That's all I can really say. I didn't even see the ending. I had to pause the movie and upon coming back decided it wasn't worth another 15 minutes of my life. I kept expecting it would get good. I kept expecting something profound or neat to happen. But nope. Just some of the worst zombies I've ever seen and some dark satanic figure with bad lines. And a lot of pointless dialogue that almost put me to sleep. Yuzna should stick to Lovecraft adaptions. He is much more inspired when dealing with them. A movie like this should get more interesting as the plot advances, not less so. I never read the book, but I have to imagine it's better than this movie turned out. It seemed to me more poorly carried out than poorly plotted.

Messy script is a big letdown after a great beginning...

[Doylenf · 5/10 · 10 February 2008]

BENEATH STILL WATERS suffers from a soggy script, poorly developed characters, situations that make no sense, and a story that becomes increasingly boring after a wonderfully creepy start.

PATRICK GORDON is the restless demon at the bottom of a dam, seeking vengeance on the townspeople after decades of silence and the death of a small boy who was curious enough to free his binds. The story jumps from that '65 incident to the present, with another death in the water prompting a diver/journalist by the name of Quarry (MICHAEL McKELL) to start an investigation of his own.

Located in Spain, the film uses a mostly Spanish cast with lackluster results. Between segments of story exposition there are a few graphic horror moments, but none of it really jells as a whole--in other words, the total effect is not as gripping as it ought to be in a tale of this sort. The make-up for some of the loathsome creatures are gruesome and malevolent enough, but there's a lack of real tension and no real build-up of suspense after an excellent start.

The overall impression is simply a horror film that never lives up to its potential and provides only a few really chilling moments.

Creepy, dark, and over the top

[super marauder · 9/10 · 9 June 2013]

I bought this blindly at the video store. What the heck? It is about a town celebrating it's anniversary but it has a of course it has a secret. A dam was built and the town became prosperous. But what was under the water is the old town and come to find out a secret was buried under the water and was coming back for revenge.

This film violated many rules like violence toward children. But for me it was creepy and interesting. I liked Michael McKell, Charlotte Salt and the rest of characters in this movie because the looked and acted real, with the exception of the blonde girl who I thought that she really over acted when she was crying over her late boyfriend. However Patrick Gordon really creeps me out.

I can see how and why this movie doesn't suit everybody. It is graphic, and there some scenes that may offend people, but for me this is a good, but not great horror movie. I'll let people make up their own mind on this and wouldn't blindly recommend to everybody. It's a matter of taste.

Simple B Horror Flick, Nothing More Nothing Less

[guitarcarl · 7/10 · 27 September 2006]

The criticisms of this movie may be a bit harsh. The plot is a little thin but it meanders along well enough for a "B" movie, which is exactly what this is, a "B" horror flick. Nothing fantastic happens here nothing horrible happens either. There are some good special effects, not great but fun anyway. I enjoyed the diving scenes and the underwater cinematography, which I'm sure was CGI, was kind of cool. The villain was pretty creepy, the Alistair Crowley connection was kind of fun. Here again nothing fantastic but kind of fun. Not for kids by the way. The movie displays the usual naked debauchery of your normal portal of hell stories. In other words plenty of bare breasts, I really found the gal smashing her breasts into the cake funny. You know your town is under the influence of satanic forces when that happens! I'm not exactly ready to recommend this movie but I have seen much worse.

Beneath Still Waters

[Scarecrow-88 · 4/10 · 1 April 2008]

A warlock, Mordecai Salas(Patrick Gordon)buried, with his chained flock inside a chamber within a devil-worshiping church, under water thanks to a mayor who was able to sink the village of Marienbad with developing deals promising a brighter future for the landscape. 40 years later, after the mayor's death, Mordecai threatens a grand return. The mayor's granddaughter, Clara(Charlotte Salt)is the one Mordecai has his eyes on, while also infecting the townspeople nearby with a type of mental sickness, and others with a black sludge-like substance derived from the muddy soil of the water covering Marienbad. Mordecai needs Clara's submission while also awaiting the collapse of the poorly structured dam, built hastily 40 years prior, giving way to a massive crack running down it.Standing in Mordecai's way are Clara's mother, Teresa(Raquel Meroño), a would-be reporter returning home after a stint in London, and a recently arrived photo-journalist, Dan Quarry(Michael McKell) who is haunted by the death of his son. Dan is on assignment covering a story on Marienbad's history and Teresa is looking for a hot story. Both will find much more than they bargained for.

Well, I explained the synopsis to the best of my ability, but director Brian Yuzna often abandons story logic in favor of bizarre gore and supernatural violence. Unrestrained, Yuzna doesn't seem obligated to tell a cohesive narrative instead taking Mordecai and allowing him to use his dark powers to torment and destroy through mind control while we see the black sludge turning citizens into creepy blob monsters. There's a jam-packed climax which includes the bridge showing signs of crumbling, the earth trembling, a festival commemorating the 40th anniversary of the dam's building which turns into a crazed orgy of sexual deviancy and Dan, quite a skilled scuba-diver, who finds the chamber where Mordecai and his followers' monstrous remains are awakened(..while also holding a book of black magic spells Mordecai used to summon his dark powers)under the sea. I think a history lesson told to Teresa and Dan by a survivor from the past, Luis(Manuel Manquiña)who saw his childhood pal Teo murdered after releasing Mordecai from his roped hands, helps the viewer out somewhat, but Yuzna's been around long enough that he ought to be able to use such an interesting premise(..an underwater village housing an evil presence which rises to terrorize)and make a better film than what we wind up getting on screen. And, I can not understand why Yuzna just won't make a Spanish horror film using the language of the cast. Why try to make a foreign cast, in a foreign setting, speak a language they are not accustomed to? There's enough gory insanity to perhaps please some horror fans(an infected policemen chops off his limbs, one poor soul is "sludged", one victim gets his face ripped apart from the mouth), but the film could've been a sleeper and instead comes away a sad disappointment.

Not very good...

[poolandrews · 3/10 · 26 March 2007]

Beneath Still Waters starts in 'Northern Spain 1965' as two young boys Teo & Luis trespass in a town that is being flooded by the creation of a dam, they run wild throughout it's streets but hear screaming coming from the local Church, upon investigation they find several people in the basement chained up including the evil dabbler in black magic Mordecai Salas (Patrick Gordon) whom Teo unwisely sets free as Teo is killed by Salas but Luis runs off... Jump forward '40 Years Later' & photojournalist Dan Quarry (Michael McKell) wants to do a story on the now completely submerged town & the upcoming celebrations by the town that was built nearby in place of it, however the preparations for the celebrations aren't going too well as a boy named Antonio drowns in the lake created by the dam. There is something alive & evil under the water still living in the submerged town & it's come back to claim the living...

This Spanish production was produced & directed by Brian Yuzna who was once a great maker of genre films but he has definitely lost his touch with his last two Spanish films, this & the equally disappointing Rottweiler (2004). The script by Mike Hostench & Angel Sala was based on a novel by Matthew Costello & one has to say it's a bit of a mess which is a shame because the basic story of a ghostly underwater town is something different & had lots of potential but sadly this is what we ended up with. The character's are dull & clichéd, a journalist, a bratty teenage kid, a TV news reporter, the guy who knows everything & tries to warn everyone but no one will believe him, the police captain with a bad attitude, the local mayor who doesn't care about an impending disaster but only about his towns celebrations & a dull villain who gets to walk around in a black suit & look menacing yet without actually doing much. The things which happen almost seem at random, zombies start to pop up everywhere but there's no real explanation of how or why & then there's this black slimy stuff which is mentioned on a couple of occasions but no more & then there's the villains lame motives, as far as I could gather all he wanted was to take the new town as his own which hardly gets the pulse racing. The story goes nowhere, it's all a bit slow, a bit fragmented & it felt like a collection of ideas that were haphazardly thrown into one script without much regard for narrative or continuity. One more thing, what was up with the dude who had the slug crawling down his forehead & a goldfish bowl full of maggots?

Dirctor Yuzna is losing it, Beneath Still Waters feels like a dour made-for-TV film at times with dull cinematography & bland Spanish locations. Then there's the annoying accents, I'm sorry but it's difficult to understand what some of these people are saying. The CGI computer effects are poor, the miniature model shots are poor although the special make-up effects fare much better. There's some decent gore here, there's some really cool looking rotting zombies, there are decapitated heads & severed limbs, the main villain like to rip peoples heads in half, someone chest bursts open, someone saws their own legs & hand off & there are also various other minor bits of blood & gore throughout although the murder of Luis seemed cut as there are noticeable jumps in the audio & too many 'reaction' shots of Teresa & Dan even though seemingly nothing has happened.

Technically the film is alright but nothing special, it looks OK but doesn't really have any style or atmosphere & it's definitely not scary. The acting isn't great.

Beneath Still Waters is a pretty poor film, it had potential & an original & intriguing premise but it makes nothing of it. Another disappointment from Yuzna & is it any surprise or coincidence he hasn't directed a film since this & Rottweiler?