Dark Waters (1993)

February 1, 2022 8:00 PM

A young Englishwoman investigates the disappearance of her friend and her own murky past when she travels to a mysterious convent on a barren island.

A folk horror classic currently streaming in the US on Shudder.

posted by DirtyOldTown (4 comments total)

What surprised me most about this one [spoilers] is when it turned out the cursed amulet was actually a nonstick pan the whole time.
posted by phunniemee at 7:00 AM on February 2, 2022

There are soooooo many movies with some variation of this title!
posted by GenjiandProust at 11:26 AM on February 2, 2022

This is an odd one because the quality of the imagery is amazing, but the photography, editing, and acting are rarely better than ordinary and the music is generally crapulent.

There are some things that will absolutely stick in a person's head, though.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 3:12 PM on February 2, 2022 [1 favorite]

You can definitely feel the low budget Italian movie DNA in this, from the soundtrack to the acting, but also for how striking it can be. So many great moments with crosses and nuns in this and I appreciated that it kind of just gets right into it without 30 minutes of mostly irrelevant drama like 2010s movies in this subgenre tend to do.

I think if this were re-scored to be a mostly diegetic soundtrack it would transform into something a lot eerier and magnetic. I think the amount of cheese in the current soundtrack takes a lot of the edge of this movie. I'd also get rid of the voice over at the end and just hold with her staring out over the ocean as credits roll

I wonder what their candle budget was?
posted by forbiddencabinet at 1:05 PM on February 3, 2022 [1 favorite]