Brian Yuzna

This Brian Yuzna directed effort from Fantastic Factory has a messy plot, bad acting and so-so special effects but is still kind of enjoyable despite all that. The story by Mike Hostench and Angel Sala (from a novel by Matthew Costello) concerns an old village in northern Spain that is flooded in 1965 to create a reservoir. Moving forward to the present day and the locals are preparing to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the establishment of the dam. Unfortunately, a series of deaths and mysterious supernatural events begin occurring. Clara Borgia (Charlotte Salt), the granddaughter of the architect of the damn, her mother Teresa, (Raquel Meroño) a local reporter and visiting British photojournalist Dan Quarry, (Michael McKell) begin to suspect that there may be some connection between the eerie goings-on and Mordecai Salas (Patrick Gordon), a sorcerer and cult leader who was drowned along with his followers when the reservoir was created. “Beneath Still Waters” has a multiplicity of plot strands, none of which satisfactorily mesh together and a set of themes that are steeped in cliché. It has a tendency to exposition and going down narrative blind alleys while throwing in random scenes that have little connection to the rest of the film. The acting is unsophisticated and amateurish, with too many of the cast appearing to be speaking English phonetically - perhaps the poor, cliched dialogue they are giving to spout is partly to blame. The underwater CGI effects are crude and in places far from realistic. Brian Yuzna’s direction is also surprisingly bland, despite the occasional flash of Yuzna’s stylistic flourishes. Despite all these obvious flaws there is still something interesting and compelling about the film. It has a genuinely creepy atmosphere at times and sequences featuring divers swimming towards the drowned village are pure Lovecraft in conception. The atmosphere at times is well-pitched providing a genuine sense of unease. Despite the disjointed nature of the narrative and the many out-of-place sequences there is still an unexplained something about the film that makes you want to continue to see where the whole farrago will eventually end up. “Beneath Still Waters” is clearly not a good film, but despite its multiplicity of flaws it was still worth seeing and oddly enjoyable.… (mais)