Claysaba Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

Doomtomylo a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

SeeQuant Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

george.schmidt DARK WATERS (1993) **1/2 Louise Salter, Venera Simmons, Mariya Kapnist, Lubov Snegur, Alvina Skarga, Pavel Sokolov, Anna Rose Phipps. Atmospherically rich but at times inert and pedestrian occult thriller from Italian filmmaker Mariano Baino (who co-scripted the Argentoian tale with Andy Bark) about a beautiful young woman (ethereal Salter) whose pilgrimage to an isolated island to reunite with her friend in a coven(try) of nefarious nuns unwittingly unlocks a personal mystery of biblical proportions. Kudos to fantastic production design with eerie élan by Ivan Pulenko but the amateurish acting by the supporting cast takes away from Salter's fine turn as a bewitched beauty downward spiraling into madness.

venusboys3 A horror fan who claims to love Argento and Fulci shouldn't have anything but love for this film... it draws on the same creative Muses while somehow managing to have a coherent plot. The director is a fan of Lovecraft and the story does have elements of 'The Dunwich Horror'... but it's not overtly Lovecraftian and the monster seems more traditionally demonic than any of Lovecraft's undead alien gods. The best thing about it are the very un-Hollywood faces of the local Ukrainians used as character actors... and the odd accents generated by their phonetic readings of the script... giving the setting an otherworldly atmosphere. I'd like to see more of this director's work because he definitely has some interesting ideas in his approach to movie making.

jsnwallach What I truly love about this film is that it suspends all disbelief. It features locations which are simply breathtaking, acting which is solid and believable, and overall execution (of a film) that is foreign film quality - and let's face it, even some of the lower budget foreign film beats the crap out of a good percentage of American blockbusters.I had the great pleasure of seeing this film on 3rd gen VHS back in 1996 and to see this absolutely gorgeous re-mastered edition was heavenly. It's refreshing to watch a film that you can get completely taken away by and have to experience the film in its entirety to learn the story of it. You know, rather than having the actors spell it out for the audience in the first act leaving only predictability to follow. Such instances disappoint me but NOT in the case of Dark Waters.This film, aside from maybe John Carpenter's The Thing, is the closest on screen adaptation, in theme, to the works of Howard Phillips Lovecraft. The darkness and uncertainty of it mixed with such ambiguity as to literally let your mind take over and almost customize the film to your liking. The whole story centers around a clandestine order of nuns on a remote island someplace that time had forgotten about. At first glance these nuns seem pretty nasty and even evil... but with further inspection, they are simply protecting the world from an ancient aquatic demon escaping and bringing all the world to utter ruin and sorrow.The film is masterfully crafted and you can tell the filmmakers truly loved making this film, the caring and attention to detail in this film is a welcome addition to an ever declining art form. If film-making is indeed a language than Mariano Baino speaks that language fluently! I cannot wait for his next feature film.Excellent!!

DVD_Connoisseur "Dark Waters" is what I'd call an "interesting" film. Mariano Baino has clearly been influenced by his fellow horror directors - there are moments in the movie that could have been pulled from an Argento, Fulci or Soavi film. However, Baino's tale is not bad at all, it just lacks originality. From the opening, with its "Evil Dead"-style panning camera shots, I knew this wouldn't be terribly inventive. However, it showed promise from the outset and it didn't disappoint.The movie is full of atmosphere and light in plot. The beautiful Louise Salter travels to a distant island in search of answers to questions that have troubled her for some time. This leads to encounters with creepy killer nuns and a mysterious creature. There are some genuine surprises in this film and there are enough moments of suspense to keep the viewer hooked 'til the final credits roll.The film is darkly lit, full of menace and a joy to watch. A strong 7 out of 10.