Strong and Moving!

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Yuzna is a genius and one of the two or three directors of the last few decades to be recognized as a true artist in the medium of film. Anyone unfamiliar with his body of work has been deprived of some of the most beautifully realized masterpieces in the history of motion pictures. With Yuzna's move to Spain, his incredible talent has set the screen ablaze with some of the most astonishingly original works ever filmed. Spain has offered him an environment in which to fulfill his vision in ways which even surpass his past artistic triumphs. With "Beneath Still Waters", Yuzna has created a unique and fantastic world unlike anything attempted by lesser directors (although Benicio del Toro has perhaps come closest with his failure, "Pan's Labyrinth"). One hesitates to go into much detail regarding specific technique, story aspects, or other delights that should be left as gifts to be shared following the initial screen experience. Let it simply be said that Yuzna not only works his magic with imagery, but directs actors to performances of stunning power. The result is a kind of "realism of the fantastical" that distinguishes the director's touch and illuminates his genius. Once one has become immersed in the towering experience that is "Beneath Still Waters", only the feast available in the remaining Yuzna body of work will satisfy. These films are not for the casual viewer looking for superficial entertainment. They are strictly for the lifetime student of film who appreciates the work of an artist that understands completely the medium within which he works and has mastered its full potential. For those prepared to be truly moved, spiritually overwhelmed, and artistically engorged, the longtime Yuzna scholar envies you your discovery of the treasures that await you. Your journey with one of the world's truly gifted directors will leave you forever changed.

The concept for this is total greatness, and pretty much original (it's based on a novel that I'll be looking for in used book stores). Forty years ago a town in Spain was abandoned so that a dam could be built to create a lake. Evil things are happening under the water as the 40th anniversary of the dam's construction approaches. There is evidence that the dam itself is unsafe, but the mayor insists the festivities must go on (I'll be generous and call this a tribute to JAWS and not copying).Good idea. Nice photography on locations in Spain.Limp direction. Uninspired writing. And, worst of all, terrible actors. For some reason it was decided that actors whose native language was Spanish could deliver dialog in English. Oh, no, they couldn't.The story goes from one predictable crisis to another. An warlock returns to the town to take control, only to be sort of thwarted by the granddaughter of the town's former mayor.Meanwhile, down in the town, the celebration is turning into an orgy.The warlock is vanquished. The granddaughter is saved and it looks like things will be all right. Then a little boy the granddaughter was babysitting gets a crazy look and tells her he hates her as strange lights shine on his face, thus setting up a sequel......if anyone should ever want to make a sequel to this. If, however, Michael Bay should ever decide to spend several million bucks remaking this through Platinum Dune's I'll be there for the 7 PM show opening weekend. It's a good story. But telling it takes talent on both sides of the camera, something very much lacking here.

Two young boys go to pay one last visit to a town before it is sank beneath water so a dam can be built, but they stumble across a strange ritual and one of them is killed. Blast forward to the present, and a photo journalist arrives in town to take some snaps and he, together with a female companion, start to uncover what really happened all those years ago. You see, a Crowley-esquire cult was using the place for worship, and their legacy still lives on. Some decent underwater photography, some good effects - the cop hacking his own legs off is particularly entertaining - and OK performances make this more than watchable. The usual Yuzna themes of cultism and nasty, rotting things are present, and Yuzna never really fails to deliver the horror goods.A decent horror film.

Hell no, damn it! Okay, this very well might not be a very good movie. For one thing, the acting certainly is below par. Another thing is that the story-line has a lot of loose ends and the screenplay just rattles. But this really is a typical Yuzna-production, featuring all his well-known ingredients and, to round it up: he knows how to deliver the goods. The special effects are pretty good considering the obvious low budget. There's gore. Gratuitous nudity. An orgy-scene. A little kid gets his face completely torn in half. A cop hacks off is own limbs and enjoys it. And the main villain is creepy and scary, very reminiscent of PHANTASM's The Tall Man. Why the hell should anybody nag about an incoherent story or bad acting if you got all of the above? I for one know what to expect from a Brian Yuzna-movie, and this time he delivers. So maybe, yes, this movie doesn't really deserve 7/10, because, well, it's not as good as THE NUN, to name another Fantastic Factory production. But it still is fun and I'm rating this on an enjoyment level solely. I'd say: if you enjoyed FAUST: LOVE OF THE DAMNED, then you'll probably like BENEATH STILL WATERS too. It's just more of that lovable Yuzna-madness. And if you don't dig it, then you probably didn't like much about his other films either. Or maybe you've just outgrown his stuff. I say it's about time he directed another movie.