The Drownsman (2014)

Best movie of this year hands down!

Beautiful, moving film.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

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.

"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

In all honesty when I saw the trailer I thought to myself this looks like a good movie. The concept was a nice idea and it certainly had a creepy vibe to it. Even when I started watching it I could see it was getting straight into the story. Yet that is only where it had my interest. From there on out.... It started to fall apart for me....First of all the way the story unfolded was pretty poor. Like I said earlier the concept of the film was good though how they laid it out was pretty weak. Like how Anna gets so seriously angry about Madison missing her wedding since Madison gained a fear of water since she nearly drowned to death. If it was my friend, I would give them the benefit of the doubt as they nearly died and are somewhat traumatised. Yet no we shall play along with the fact her friends have had enough and want to help her by stuffing her in a tub of water. (I have seen so many therapies for this particular phobia work exactly how they did it). Anyway I digress. Its little things like this in the story that drive me a little mad as it just doesn't flow well enough for me.Now you may say, well its a horror, the story is not meant to matter. Be there for the scares! Well sorry but b*ll*cks to that. I never got a single jump out of it. Not even my fiancée and she jumps easy, she ended up slumping over from boredom. Other than the fact the Drownsman looked like a runaway Orc from Lord of the Rings hoping to pursue a new career in Hollywood, his killings just did not do it for me. He just killed them like his namesake, which clearly the writer couldn't make exciting. Plus all of his attacks were very much the same. You knew when he was coming and even when he did all it was, was his bloody hand!So as you can see I was clearly disappointed by this film and if you do care about the storyline you will be too. I only gave this film two stars as I still reckon the plot line of this film could have worked. So please avoid this and watch something more interesting. Like the steam off a pile of sh*t.P.S. The worst quote of the film was Madison saying "To be honest, I didn't believe until today" which brings up many questions.And the worst reaction is when Madison trying to save her remaining living friend. Pathetic!

The acting is excellent."Madison" has been in other horror movies and continues to impress me.She has a future in Hollywood. She will break out of horror B flicks and into mainstream soon.I couldn't help think of the Descent..the acting,the intense relationships and the spook factor.Its not as good as The Descent by any means but still most movies starring all women just are epic fails.The Drownsman keeps you interested from start to finish...no filler and no exploitation.If you appreciate good acting and a good storyline,even a bit original..give The Drownsman a watch.Its good entertainment.No cheese and no gimicks!Just nonstop spooky fun!