Dark Waters (1994), Lovecraftian Terror with Italian Horror Flair

I’m a sucker for a good atmospheric Lovecraftian horror film, and I’m even more thrilled when it happens to be an Italian horror film, because then you know it’s going to be overflowing with unique style and excess. Filmed in the Ukraine, director Mariano Baino’s “DARK WATERS” is a stellar example of the nightmarish gem that can result when Lovecraft and Italian horror are fused as one. Just like in Lucio Fulci’s masterpiece “THE BEYOND”, those grandiose and gory gross out death scenes are on full display, and the film contains characters whose eyes have gone white from being blinded after witnessing the threatening evil presence in all of its supernatural glory. There’s even a little bit of Dario Argento’s “SUSPIRIA” thrown in, with an unsuspecting main character arriving to stay at an architecture that is ruled by a threatening, all female, presence and a couple other moments characteristic of “SUSPIRIA, that fans will no doubt notice. As far as I could observe, the H.P. Lovecraft influence is mostly “THE CALL OF CTHULHU” with an ending climax that shares a resemblance to a plot device from “THE DUNWICH HORROR”. I didn’t notice the resemblance to “THE DUNWICH HORROR” the first time I viewed this film, but if you think about it, you’ll see it. I don’t want to give it away, so I’ll hint at it. It involves 2 offspring from some otherworldly creature, with one resembling the parent more than the other! 

Starting out strong with style and mysticism, the first part of the movie is presented in a dialogue-free fashion, amongst a sea side monastery, dark threatening waters, creepy religious imagery, and candle lit subterranean caverns. In fact, the beginning of the film happens to be the only part of the story that consists of an attack from actual dark waters, with the film’s monster not even coming from the sea, which is opposite of what I was led to believe given the movie’s title. Not a big deal at all though, because just like a movie called "TROLL 2" that has no Trolls in it, this movie is still great and is deserving of a new found popularity. That way, Mariano Baino can inflict many more films on us like he said he would do in the director’s introduction to the film (the release from No Shame).

Crocodile (1979)

Behold the power of exploitation movie poster art… I clearly recall stumbling across this one at the video rental store as a little kid during one of my many curious romps to the horror movie section. I was dually fascinated and terrified by the VHS box art of a crocodile, bigger than anything I had ever imagined, emerging from the waters with an explosion of destruction and carnage. The image had penetrated my subconscious, and for days I wondered what a movie that bared such menacing and awesome cover art could be like. After finally convincing my parents to rent it for me, I patiently waited for the household to fall asleep, in order to have the VCR and TV all to myself. Not surprisingly, the film ended up being nothing like I expected. The end result was a foreign, low budget, and awkwardly dubbed affair that didn’t leave me with a water phobia like JAWS did. However, it still managed to creep and gross me out with its eerie croc attacks and graphic under water carnage. For some reason, the movie really got under my skin, and to this day, its hold on me has never left. 

What unholy forces compel me to revisit this maddening tale of underwater terror? Is it a determination to confront and drive away an unsettling memory this film has procured in my mind, or is it to determine what has made it burrow its way deep into my sub-conscience and refuse to leave? It is also quite possible that I was just too young to recognize a lousy movie when I saw one. Well after viewing it again, I would have to say that I indeed was too young to notice the films flaws, and I’m glad that I was able to still put myself into a childlike mindset and still derive all of the feelings I experienced during my first viewing and more.