Tag: Mariano Baino

Just in time for Severin’s second folk horror box set, I’ve finally made inroads into the first volume… never let it be said that I am especially current or up to date in any way with these things. Anyway, this is a film I’ve been curious about for literally decades; I first read about it in Andy Black’s old Necronomicon journal which came out in 1996, so it must’ve been about that time when I did, with the first volume having contained an article by Black himself on “Lovecraftian” cinema… and Dark Waters being hailed as having the most “Lovecraftian” aura on film yet (i.e. to the mid-90s) in said article. To be perfectly honest, having finally seen the thing, I’m not really sure what Black saw in it on that front; for me it was far more reminiscent of other Italian horror than anything in HPL, especially Michele Soavi’s The Church, which has a similar theme (the church/monastery containing a monstrous demonic presence). Add in a whiff of Argento (Suspiria with nuns, sort of) and Fulci (the general befuddling disregard for plot coherence), and Dark Waters is kind of what you get, I suppose…

Black acknowledges the film is more style than substance, but as I said of Opera the other day, it’s quite some style; director Mariano Baino shot the film in Ukraine (one of the first Western productions there after the fall of the USSR), which made for immensely difficult conditions given the region’s wobbly politics but offered spectacular locations. Alex Howe’s cinematography does most of the heavy lifting in this film, along with the foul weather that most of it takes place in, and the general atmosphere is super-strong; alas that Dark Waters is severely let down by its lead actress, Louise Salter as the young woman who discovers her late father has been paying for this mysterious Ukrainian monastery and wants to know why, and I suspect there’s a reason why her career since this film has been so limited… I don’t think it’s just the fault of post-synchronisation. Not a great film, after all this time, but fascinating to watch nevertheless… even if, frankly, I’m not sure what’s so “Lovecraftian” about it.