(1994)
3.5
Robert Firsching
Perhaps the most exciting genre debut of the decade, Dark Waters is a stylish, frightening occult film with the Lovecraftian overtones of Lucio Fulci and the visual flair of Dario Argento, pointing to its creator, Mariano Baino, as perhaps the next great Italian horror director. Louise Salter (Interview With the Vampire) stars as Elizabeth, who travels to a dark, gloomy island in search of her friend. What she finds instead is a frightening convent run by a hideous, blind nun (Mariya Kapnist) and her homicidal followers. Befriended by young-nun Sarah (Venera Simmons), Elizabeth seeks to discover the identity of her own mother, why her father was secretly funding the convent, and she wants to know what happened to her friend. Hallucinations of twin girls with blood-smeared mouths, beaches littered with thousands of dead fish, and gory murders haunt Elizabeth before she reaches her final confrontation with a horrible Lovecraftian demon. Richly textured and gorgeously photographed by Alex Howe, Dark Waters stands out visually for Baino's use of flame. The director paints the coastal landscape with fire, torches, and candlelight the way Argento paints with color, to striking and memorable effect. Salter and Simmons are quite good in the leads, and the film generates more than its share of goosebumps despite a weak score by Igor Clark. This atmospheric Italian-Russian co-production fulfills the promise shown by Baino in his previous cult short Caruncula, and is a rare treat for horror fans.
cast-crew for Dark Waters on AllMovie
Dark Waters (1994)
