AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Mandeep Tyson The acting in this movie is really good.

disdressed12 wow,this thing is really all over the place.sometimes the acting is not bad.at other times,it' not good at all.the dialogue ranges from decent to lame.sometimes there's just no context.the tone is a mess.i can't tell if it was supposed to be a thriller, or a black comedy,or a parody.sometimes this thing is just so over the top,it's ridiculous.then,all of a sudden it switches gears,and it seems like it's trying to be serious.there's really more than one movie here.i guess it was an entertaining mess,if nothing else.i give it a 2--no wait--a 6--i mean a 4--or maybe a 7.wait a minute.i'm all over the place.kinda like this movie.i can't give it a rating.i wouldn't know where to start.

MrGKB ...why, it's almost criminal, I think! Brian "Bride of Re-Animator" Yuzna is at least a genre demi-god, far as I'm concerned, but if so, his powers have seemingly all but evaporated. "BSW" (and I like the acronym because it emphasizes the nature of this mess of a film) has none of the vigor or playfulness of his earlier films. Methinks he is suffering from encroaching ennui. The leads are mostly European teevee actors, no doubt appealing in that medium, with varying and mostly limited intensities of screen presence. It doesn't help that a good number of them were speaking a second language, and at that knowing they're going to be overdubbed anyway. It shows in the performances, which are often stilted, almost unnatural. Worse, of course, is the script, about which the less said the better; Sturgeon was right, as always. Things start off fairly well for a low-budget adaptation of some pulp-horror bus ride throwaway, and then the whole affair sinks beneath the weight of a tired plot, at times horrendous dialogue, problematic acting, disappointing production values at key junctures, seemingly indifferent direction--even the obligatory bare boobies and revolting gore couldn't save this turkey. Strictly desperation viewing only, sorry to say. Mr. Yuzna should stick to producing.

Coventry Brian Yuzna was already responsible for some really crazy and unusual horror projects in the past; some of them refreshing and original ("Society", "The Dentist") and other ones unspeakably terrible ("Rottweiler"), but "Beneath Still Waters" is undoubtedly the most discouraging effort he was ever involved in. This film certainly doesn't look as if it were directed by someone with over twenty years of experience in the genre, because the wholesome simply feels amateurish and unfinished. How can a concept holding so much horrific potential result in such a boring and incoherent mess? How can one film feature so many exquisite filming locations, nauseating make-up effects and thoroughly depraved themes and still turn out a complete failure? I love macabre tales handling about sunken villages and the dark secrets that drowned with them. There are way too few films like this in the horror genre and of the two I encountered during the past year, one is obscure as hell and remains unreleased on DVD to this date (the modest Swiss production entitled "Marmorera") and the other one - this particular film - is a missed opportunity. There are a lot of things going on in "Beneath Still Waters", but only very little of them make sense and it seems as if Yuzna doesn't want you to care about any of the characters and the grim ordeals they are facing. The events take place in a remote Spanish village, days before the great 40th anniversary celebration of the dam that prevented the area from flooding and the subsequent foundation of a brand new town called Desbaria. Few people know, however, the dam initially served to deliberately drown the entire town of Marienbad, because all the inhabitants were gradually joining the satanic cult led by Mordecai Salas. Two ruthless boys accidentally saved Salas from a watery death right before the town sunk entirely, and he has been waiting forty years now to seek revenge on the descendants of the previous mayor. So … what we have here is, without exaggerating, one of the most promising horror premises of the past two decades AND you can also add several dynamite sub themes like nudity, child-kill, underwater zombies and even a totally gratuitous orgy complete with nuns and chickens! Can someone please tell me where exactly this idea went wrong? Yuzna leaps from one subject to another without paying attention to continuity and for some reason he also inserts numerous tedious elements. All the main characters are bland and of course the really wooden acting performances of the ensemble cast don't help. Most of the players appear to be dead long before their characters drown in the lake or become "consumed" by the living mucus & seaweed. Such a dam(n) shame, because the Spanish filming locations are genuinely ominous! For the proper grim use of picturesque Spanish villages, please check out "Dagon" and "The Nun", which are both films Yuzna produced but not directed himself.

Neil Doyle BENEATH STILL WATERS suffers from a soggy script, poorly developed characters, situations that make no sense, and a story that becomes increasingly boring after a wonderfully creepy start.PATRICK GORDON is the restless demon at the bottom of a dam, seeking vengeance on the townspeople after decades of silence and the death of a small boy who was curious enough to free his binds. The story jumps from that '65 incident to the present, with another death in the water prompting a diver/journalist by the name of Quarry (MICHAEL McKELL) to start an investigation of his own.Located in Spain, the film uses a mostly Spanish cast with lackluster results. Between segments of story exposition there are a few graphic horror moments, but none of it really jells as a whole--in other words, the total effect is not as gripping as it ought to be in a tale of this sort. The make-up for some of the loathsome creatures are gruesome and malevolent enough, but there's a lack of real tension and no real build-up of suspense after an excellent start.The overall impression is simply a horror film that never lives up to its potential and provides only a few really chilling moments.