BlazeLime
Strong and Moving!
Tacticalin
An absolute waste of money
Catangro
After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.
lazarillo
This recent movie is kind of in the vein of "Evil Dead" and is certainly no worse than the recent remake. Three couples (including Danielle Harris), a slutty female friend (Mirceau Monroe), and another male (James Duval), who is persona non grata with the most of rest of the gang, all show up on an island owned by the grizzled uncle (Robert Patrick)of one of the guys. In an effort to entertain themselves during a power outage, the group decides to play a strange board game they find in the attic (that no one outside of a horror movie would even recognize as a board game, let alone decide to play). The strange game quickly brings all the groups simmering resentments to the surface and eventually results in the usual full-blown demonic possession and gory murder. The end though has a nice twist.The movie features no less than three horror/genre cult figures in Danielle Harris (of the "Halloween" franchise), James Duval ("May"), and Robert Patrick ("The Terminator 2"). Robert Rodriquez's two identical twin nieces (the "Babysitter Twins" in his "Planet Terror" part of "Grindhouse") show up as a couple of, uh, bickering identical twins. There are also TWO black guys-- Harris' proud-to-be-black boyfriend and his back-stabbing "oreo" friend and co-worker, who has been promoted over him at work. Then there's Mirceau Monroe and her impressive breasts (who really should have received their own credit as they constantly upstage their owner). This is definitely a strong cast, especially for an "Evil Dead" knock-off that has been sitting on the shelf for several years.Of course, it is not a particularly SCARY movie. It also makes the mistake of promising a lot more sex than it ultimately delivers. Sure, you get Monroe (and her breasts) in a brief shower scene and the "Babysitter Twins" (or, more likely,their body doubles) running around in thong underwear. But the movie also PROMISES an identical-twin sex scene that never materializes, and a lesbian scene between Harris and Monroe that tragically takes place entirely off-screen (oh, the humanity!). The movie is still fairly effective without such sex scenes, so why even promise them in the first place? Despite these flaws though, which are pretty typical of a lot of sex-obsessed yet strangely prudish modern-day horror flicks, this is still a moderately fun horror movie, which I guess I'd recommend--yeah, why not?
RichardSRussell-1
The Black Waters of Echo's Pond (1:31, R) — Fantasy: Supernatural, bargain basement, originalI rate SF&F movies on a scale of 1 (execrable) to 9 (superlative). Not surprisingly, a year's worth of them tends to form a bell-shaped curve, with lots of movies in the middle and hardly any at the extremes. This one is among the rarities — but unfortunately not up there at the Avatar or Dark Knight end of the scale: It's one of the worst movies I've ever seen.Here are the characters: • Rick (James Duval), the generally unwelcome 9th wheel at the party • Kathy (Danielle Harris), whose brother Danny, sporting a "1.8%" blood-alcohol level, had been killed in a car crash while riding with Rick • Robert (M. D. Walton), token Hispanic, a recently promoted loan officer • Trent (Walker Howard), token black guy, a junior loan officer who got Rob his job • Veronique (Mircea Monroe), a flirtatious sex kitten with new boobs • Erica (Elise Avellan), the goody-goody twin • Anton (Arcadiy Golubovich), her curly-haired, accented husband • Renee (Electra Avellan), the more daring twin • Josh (Nick Mennell), her bland and forgettable fiancé • Pete (Robert Patrick, who also executive produced), the eccentric old guy with the shotgun who owns the island and the lodge on itThe opening 9 minutes supposedly occur in the "Meandros Valley, Turkey, April 1927", as archeologists unearth Omphalos, lost temple of Pan. Among their findings is a map to Pan's lair, Pandemonium, where "demons were entertained by the tortures of the damned". The expedition leader is warned by its financier to bring all the artifacts to him immediately. For some bizarre and unexplained reason, this entails going to Beacon's Isle, Maine. By the time the financier arrives, the archeologists have converted their goodies into a tabletop-sized board game and proceeded to kill each other; the last of them takes out the money guy, then blows his own brains out.Zip ahead to the present day, when 8 college buddies arrive on that self-same island for a weekend getaway, along with mismatched acquaintance Rick, who's evidently done different things to tick off each of the others individually. They discover the game walled up behind some boards in the basement and decide, since the electricity has just gone out, that they may as well try playing it. The 1st Chance card they get ominously suggests "speak thy hurt unspoken", and Trent uses it as an invitation to unload his resentment over Rob's success at their joint workplace.Things deteriorate from there, as old jealousies (and new), misunderstandings, resentments, etc. flare up. Periodically the red-eyed goat head of Pan puts in an appearance in a non- speaking role, for no apparent reason. Sooner or later, each of the young people undergoes a transition in which their eyes turn black, grossly overdone black mascara and lipstick starts running down their faces, and they engage in frenzied homicidal attacks on their erstwhile friends, using rocks, rakes, spear guns, shotguns, knives, cleavers, icepicks, chainsaws, and good old-fashioned thumbs-on-the-windpipe choking. Bad as the plot is, the acting is worse. The make-up is screamingly awful. The very limited effects are abysmal. None of the characters is remotely likable. Despite the prolog, there's nothing about Turkey or ancient mythology in the main storyline, and neither the black waters nor Echo's Pond puts in an appearance. This has all the hallmarks of something slapped together by a drunken committee over a bad weekend.Fun to review, tho.
Iluvhorror1990
The Black Waters of Echo's Pond is an amazing movie amazing vision, amazing acting and one of the best written films ever then I woke up and realized it was just a dream. You'd think after 3 years the filmmakers would have made at least a half way decent horror film right? Wrong!!!! This is simply one of the worst movies I have ever watched. It's not the worst ever, but its close. First of all let's get one thing straight, this is not a throwback to 80's horror films in the same vein of all the classic campy horror films made. Adam Green's Hatchet was that type of film. Hatchet was campy and fun to watch for the most part there is absolutely nothing fun, campy or cool about Black Waters .nothing. The characters are unlikeable, shallow and just poorly written. There is nothing or no one to care about in this film. Basically the game shows visions of another character doing something to screw over the person watching the vision. Then their eyes turn black and they kill that person or try to kill that person. Example: A loan office screws over his friend and then revenge with a chainsaw...Zzz Zzz. All in all they seem like they are all just thrown together for a weekend much like this film was thrown together for a release. And yes the very beautiful Avellan Twins and Arcadiy Golubovich are very hard to understand. I was laughing at some of their serious dialog. Hiring people with hard to understand accents was not a bright idea. The "babysitter Twins" were a funny idea for"Grindhouse", but seriously these two do not belong in a film where acting skills are required. If these two are considered actresses, then Arnold Schwarzenegger is one of the finest thespians in the business. Let's just hope they will not "be back"!!! Some things are better seen and not heard and in small very small doses. For the most part Danielle Harris, James Duvall, and Robert Patrick do well in this film. These three actors have been in great movies over the years so they know what they are doing. But clearly they are working with nothing and it shows. The other performances are just forgettable and cliché except for the Twins and Golubovich, they were just plain laughable. You will laugh its funny ha-ha trust me. The story is blah and completely unoriginal and so are the death scenes. The rake to the head is hilarious. The dialog is nothing to write home about either. I don't know who Sean Clark is, but he needs to take a writing class. I would suggest writing 101 for starters .C'Mon dude, you can't possibly be a fan of horror with crap like this can you? "It's all a dream sequence" is so unoriginal and cheap. Did you really think this was a good idea or did the drugs finally ware off and you just said F#$@ it give me my check? This guy can't be a fan of horror films period. The same can be said for director Gabe Bologna, I just don't think he knows what he is doing. Actors reactions don't match the scenes and his close up are awkward and laughable. He doesn't understand pacing, suspense or anything remotely apart of a horror film. In fact this movie is more of a comedy then a horror film it's so bad. I can't believe they are even comparing this to Paranormal Activity. Maybe I'm spoiled with my Blu-ray player on my 50" TV and also with films like Avatar, but TBWOEP (tired of writing it out) just looks terrible. When they say throwback to the 80's, did they shoot it with an 80's VHS camcorder? I'm not a fan of the recent Friday the 13th remake, but at least it looked good. This is a theatrical release, for Christ sakes act like it Overall this film feels like a Cinemax movie. I would have easily rented this on Netflix and had no hard feelings. $13.95 a month is worth it even for bad films like this. But make no mistake about it The Black Waters of Echo's Pond has no business being in theaters. It gives horror films a bad name. My only hope is that this film fades away without too much fuss so "real" horror movies or should I say good independent horror movies can get a theatrical release. By the way what the hell does "Echo" have to do with the movie?
superrooty
Wow.And I do mean wow. This film is soooooo bad, I don't know where to start. I saw this at a festival screening and wanted to like it. Horror has become watered down in recent years due to the glut of remakes and poor sequels, so when I heard about this I was pumped. I even dragged two of my friends and my girl to sit through it with me.Wow, did I ever make a mistake.This film is CHEAP, but that's not really a problem. Paranormal Activity was cheap and that was half-decent. However, PA knew how to spend its money whereas this film clearly doesn't.It certainly didn't spend it on the script, which is appalling.The characters are all completely unlikeable, which sometimes works but here they're just irritating and unwatchable. I'm sure I saw the director in an interview proclaiming that it's great because you don't know who to root for, but that's bull. I can answer that for you buddy - you can root for NOBODY because the characters are all assholes with some of the lamest dialog ever submitted to a film.This is a story about loan officers who get heartbroken about stolen commission. This is a story that hints at a lesbian scene in the trailer and talks about the god Pan. Who basically looks down the stairs at someone and that's it.And here's the best bit.SPOILER WARNING - It's all a f**king DREAM!!! Seriously! In this day and age, the fact these 'filmmakers' even attempt to get some mileage out of that idea shows complete incompetence. That and utter contempt for their audience.I feel sorry for the actors in this. They're all trying their best with an abysmal script and appalling direction. It's difficult to tell if the problems are mainly with the script or the direction, but this is certainly a case of 'inmates running the asylum'. These people are like fans who've been given money to burn yet don't have a clue how to make a movie. They've been all over the internet reviewing their own film too and that is just lame.I really wanted to like this film. The first poster was great. Danielle Harris is a great actress but what is she doing in this? Somebody shoot her agent.The sad part is, they had an opportunity here, but I guess monkeys can't always produce Shakespeare.Avoid at all costs - or, better yet, watch it as a comedy. You may get your twelve bucks worth.
