A few questions to start. How did I not know this film existed? How did this film actually come to exist? If you’re anything like me, when you think of 90’s horror films certain things come to mind, like dying slasher franchises that are doing anything they can to unsuccessfully reinvent themselves or self aware and “hip” new films starring very pretty people from CW and WB shows. For many horror fans, the 90’s were a struggle to find anything that was either new or quality. So…back to the questions.
I thought I knew about most movies. There’s a good chance if I ever heard the title bandied about I likely assumed they were talking about Dark Water the 2002 J-Horror film, or maybe the 2005 remake starring Jennifer Connelly. Even in more recent years, Todd Haynes released a 2019 film called Dark Waters starring Mark Ruffalo and Anne Hathaway. So in both mainstream and horror circles, it’s easy to see how I could’ve easily mistaken mention of the title for something else.
However, if someone had attempted to even describe the plot of 1993’s Dark Waters, I certain my ears would’ve perked up and I would’ve demanded to know what the hell they were talking about. For starters, Dark Waters doesn’t feel like a 90’s movie. It looks, and more importantly feels, like a nunsploitation/witch movie from the 1970’s. It wouldn’t have surprised me in the least if Christopher Lee had shown up bearing his sinister smile. Even after watching it for the first time, and knowing it was made in the 90’s, I have a hard time believing it.
Also, much like those weird horror films of the 70’s, this film is completely insane. Any attempts at summarizing the plot seem doomed for failure, as the plot isn’t the point of the film really. Imdb attempts it best with “woman visits monastery after learning her recently deceased father donated money to it.” But again, anyone who is a fan of either weird genre horror isn’t exactly on pins and needles hoping the plot makes sense. I want to see outrageous scenes, beautiful or exotic scenery, and people to lose their freaking mind.
If that’s what you want, then Dark Waters is also for you.
Now to get to the second question: how did this film come into existence?
I’m not overly familiar with writer/director Mariano Baino. When imdb informed me he was an Italian born director who both idolized H.P. Lovecraft and went to the Experimental Centre of Cinematography in Rome I cannot say I was surprised. Let me tell you this, whoever taught Baino cinematography needs to have their hand shaken because Dark Waters is an absolutely gorgeous film. Take some chosen screenshots from the movie and you’d swear that you’re looking at an arthouse film. What is shocking though is that aside from this movie, he’s only got a handful of shorts to his credit, with the 1hr and 6min anthology The Trinity of Darkness the only other credit approaching feature length?
How does this happen? How does someone come out of nowhere, create a batshit masterpiece, and then essentially disappear again? Is he Italy’s version of Richard Stanley?
I don’t know. The only thing I hope is he has more films still to come.
Rated 3.5 out of 5
