Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.0

Dark Waters Blu-ray Movie Review

Note: This film is available on Blu-ray as both a standalone release (with different technical aspects and supplements) and as a part of All the Haunts Be Ours: A Compendium of Folk Horror.

All the Haunts Be Ours advertises itself as "the most comprehensive collection of its kind", which may initially beg the question as to "kind of what?". But the release also comes with a front cover sobriquet proclaiming it "a compendium of folk horror", which may then beg the next obvious question as to what exactly "folk horror" is. In that regard, this set begins with a fascinating and diverse documentary which has its own subtitle referencing folk horror, Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror, which provides a veritable glut of clips from international films which director (and this entire set's guiding light) Kier-La Janisse has assembled to help define the genre, but perhaps the best answer is to simply echo a certain Supreme Court Justice named Potter Stewart who was trying to decide a case involving supposed pornography, and who famously opined, "I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description, and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it. . ."

Dark Waters Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Video quality is assessed in the above linked review. That said, much like the audio on this release (see below), the video looks a least a bit better on this release, without the slight windowboxing the original Severin release showed. I wouldn't say this approaches 4.0 levels, but should probably rate a 3.75.

Dark Waters Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Could someone actually have been paying attention to a review of mine? One of my qualms with the original standalone release from Severin was its lossy audio option, and that has been remedied on this version with a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono track. The difference may admittedly not be huge, but in my estimation there is certainly at least a marginal improvement in the midrange and low end especially, something that helps with both ambient environmental effects and scoring. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

Dark Waters Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Probably because this version is packaged on one disc with another title, this is missing several of the supplements that were included with the standalone release.

• Audio Commentary with Writer/Director Mariano Baino is hosted by No Shame Video's Michéle De Angelis. Both participants are fairly heavily accented and it can occasionally be a bit hard to decipher exactly what they're saying.


• Deep into the Dark Waters (SD; 50:28) is a well done archival making of piece that actually helps to fill in a few of the gaps the film's narrative kind of leaves by the wayside.

Dark Waters Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

This one may be a bit of a tradeoff for those contrasting and comparing the version included in All the Haunts Be Ours and the standalone release. I think video and (especially) audio are more appealing here, but this version is missing a lot of the really well done supplements that adorned the standalone release, and in fact it was due at least in part to those excellent supplements that I recommended the standalone release. My bottom line assessment here is if you didn't spring for the standalone release, the technical presentation here is superior, and you can refer to my original review for a list of the supplements the standalone release offered.