GL84 Emotionally crippled from a traumatic experience, a woman and her friends attempt to cure the incident leads them to inadvertently resurrect a vicious supernatural killer who begins killing them off one-by-one and must find the connection to them to stop his spree.Frankly this was a lot better than expected overall. One of the film's best strengths is the fact that this one really plays quite nicely in detailing the very real and somewhat plausible fear here that really could be possible and occur in the real world. Taking on the fear of water as it occurs here comes off as a very logical and realistic phobia that's well-played here with some far better scares than it really deserves as this one really plays with a common everyday occurrence only turning it into a more horrifying experience. That in turn gives this one some rather chilling scenes and encounters here with the initial accident forcing her fear upon her being a more than appropriate start to her fears, the encounter in the bathtub where they try to intervene on her behalf only to release the killer after them makes for quite a creepy and thrilling scene and the different encounters with her friends getting attacked and picked off one-by- one around her that this one gets plenty to like here with the abduction by the water faucet and the elevator ambush being particular highlights. As well, they give this one the setup needed to bring about the high-energy finale which is rather enjoyable as the different discoveries around his basement lair finding their floating corpses and the brawling needed to finally end him once and for all gives this one a rousing, chilling sequence that takes full advantage of not only the chilling setting but also featuring the nice action overall to give this a lot to like. Combined with the creepy look of the main killer who really looks quite chilling with the wetness of his body really combining well with the dreadlocks and the green, decomposing skin, there's quite a lot to really like here though it does have a couple of flaws present here. The film's biggest problem here is the fact that the killer might look creepy, but otherwise he's completely not threatening at all which is mainly due to him not really appearing here all that often. Though the film doesn't really have a slow pace at all, there's not all that many encounters with the killer to really get an idea of what he can do or what his powers are and they appear mainly to be simply just dragging people away through puddles of water. That alone is weak enough, but it also manages to be completely clueless about him or what he's after them for which manages to really make the mystery about him all the more obvious here with the utterly lame killing motivation once it's finally revealed to be the case which really makes for a really troubling killer. The other big flaw to this that really does tie into how lame the killer really is comes from the actual killing method, which consists of simply drowning people which is used throughout here and doesn't really deliver a shocking enough impression on the killer, and that all ties together into making him quite a lame villain. It's really the only thing that holds it back.Rated R: Graphic Language and Violence.

Wizard-8 It's pretty obvious where director and co-writer Chad Archibald's inspiration for "The Drownsman" came from - the "Nightmare on Elm Street" movies. However, in his defence he makes the evil force in this movie pretty original - I can't recall another movie involving a water-based supernatural force like this movie. But despite this original touch, the end results, while not terrible, don't really work. Despite all the water, the movie plays out in a dry and drab way - even the bland cinematography doesn't grab the audience's attention. The movie is too subdued, content to just hover around the mildly creepy part of the scare scale (at most, and not very often.) It's also really slow going at times. I think a reason why the movie is so bland is that the title figure is so underwhelming. We learn little about The Drownsman, and he simply doesn't get to do that much that might either interest or chill us. What the movie ends up being is a horror movie that's for the select few that don't like what the horror genre usually tries to give its audience.

Peter Pluymers "Dabrowsky. During his speech. He called you the 'afraid of honor.' It sort of became the running joke of the night. Hannah did not find it funny."Are you afraid of water or have another phobia when it comes to liquid substances, then perhaps it's wisely to ignore this film because this a rather soggy affair. Unfortunately, the whole spectacle largely fails. It ended up to be a disappointing slasher film (however it's only water that's splashing around instead of human blood). Most average, unoriginal horrors follow the well-known golden rules of this genre. Firstly, the main character always has ties to the menacing entity who makes the protagonists lives miserable. Secondly, there is of course no one who believes the main character. And third such a mainstream film is never fully resolved at the end. Believe me, "The drownsman" nicely obeys these rules. Nevertheless, the opening scene looked promising and was imaged brilliantly in a certain way. The moment a young woman throws her head backwards while sitting in a tub and her long hair swishes water in the air with a perfect synchronous movement, was a moment that seemed to come straight out of a commercial for shampoo. Unfortunately, this highly aesthetically designed excerpt wasn't repeated during the rest of the film. It all looked extremely banal and ordinary. It wasn't really threatening or frightening. The way the victims kick the bucket, is downright lousy. Are you getting sick at the sight of blood, I can reassure you. There's not a spatter of blood to be seen here in this film. In fact the weapon used to vanquish the demon is something what actually isn't resistant to water. I thought a mop would be an appropriate weapon, so you could mop the villain away.What bothered me the most, were Madison's (Michelle Mylett) three best friends. Three pedantic stupid chicks who, despite that they are furious about the fact that Madison has missed the wedding of her best friend, still are so kindhearted to help their friend with her nasty phobia. They ask Kobie (Gemma Bird Matheson), a medium, to help them out. She already has some experience with similar cases and according to her expertise it could be that they are dealing with a "haunting" ("Let's not call them haunting."). Eventually they use a fairly sadistic and extreme method to help Madison. They just immerse her in a bath. I think it would have been wiser to seek professional help.As always I try to find something positive in a movie. The cause that created this wet demon, was a highly original idea. Also, the way it uses the medium water to move around, was not ill-conceived. And of course, the acting of Michelle Mylett was admirable. The way she portrayed the fear that came over her, during the appearances, was certainly praiseworthy. And the moments when "The drownsman" suddenly popped up, was reasonably successful but far from chilling. Unfortunately, these are also the only positive points I could come up with. The rest is just a storm in a teacup.More reviews here : http://bit.ly/1KIdQMT

MrGKB for some wet-behind-the-ears actors and production crew, if you ask me, and that's about it. With higher caliber talent and some serious script-doctoring, this might--and I can only emphasize, might--have transcended its straight-to-video-purgatory nature, but alas! Blub, blub, blub! We're sailing the high seas of Sturgeon's Revelation here. A watery grave is all this leaky vessel riddled with plot holes can ever hope to achieve. Mercifully, the DVD has nary a featurette, promo or otherwise, and that's likely a very good thing; I'd really hate to watch these kids drown in self-effacing explanations for taking a paying gig. At least, I hope they got paid. They did, right? Right?