5.4 | / 10 |
Users | 3.2 | |
Reviewer | 2.0 | |
Overall | 2.1 |
Nine friends take a holiday at a Victorian home on a private island and uncover a game that when played brings out the worst in each of them. Jealously, greed, hatred, lust, all of the things they keep buried deep inside themselves rise to the surface and come to a boil. The Black Waters of Echo's Pond shows those who look into it what they want to see... but what you want to see isn't always the truth.
Starring: Danielle Harris, Robert Patrick, Sean Lawlor, James Duval, Nick MennellHorror | 100% |
Fantasy | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: Dolby TrueHD 5.1
English SDH, Spanish
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 1.0 | |
Video | 3.0 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 0.5 | |
Overall | 2.0 |
The modern world has yet to see anything like this.
Imagine Jumanji and Zathura meet Evil Dead and get a pretty good visual of The Black Waters of Echo's
Pond, a movie about old friends, ancient curses, a board game, and a whole bunch of modern-day violence. It's a mouthful of a title for a movie
that's anything but satisfying.
And about the only thing it shares in common with those other, significantly better movies is the mix-and-match premise. The Black
Waters of Echo's Pond takes what is admittedly a pretty nifty idea and manages to ruin it completely. Beyond the premise -- which is better
enjoyed by letting the imagination run wild with possibilities than actually sitting down to watch this take on it -- there's almost nothing to like here.
It's a small-budget, wholly vacuous excursion into low end
filmmaking and missed potential, not to mention bland characters and poor acting.
Uh, your eye makeup...it's on your cheeks.
The Black Waters of Echo's Pond looks its budget on Blu-ray. While there are some scenes that showcase higher tier facial details and general textures around the house and of the board game, just as many, if not more, scenes suffer from a softer, more poorly defined presentation. However, it is clear enough to showcase much of the nasty gore that appears in the second and, primarily, third acts. The movie has a heavy lower grade video feel to it, both in the sepia-toned Turkey sequence to start the film and in the modern day scenes that define the rest of the movie. Colors are fairly nondescript, generally accurate but hardly vibrant or precisely true to life. Black levels often appear rather pale, while flesh tones take on a somewhat pasty, flat appearance. Blocky backdrops are fairly common. It's not a pretty image by any stretch of the imagination, but the Blu-ray does appear fairly true to the source.
The Black Waters of Echo's Pond features a fair Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack. Much like the video, it's adequate in all areas but spectacular in none. Heavy bass can sometimes overwhelm dialogue, particularly near the beginning. Bass does dominate much of the movie; there's plenty of volume and heft to many of the film's biggest explosions of violence. Revving chainsaws, crashes, screams, and all variety of Horror soundtrack mayhem come through evenly and clearly enough. More subtle nighttime atmospherics are well implemented, and general stage presence is quite good, whether in the most chaotic spread of violence or the simple act of a character throwing a bottle and hearing it land somewhere in the back of the stage. Other than that early bass-heavy moment, dialogue generally comes through evenly and accurately. This is no memorable track, but it offers a fun, balanced listen from beginning to end.
All that's included with this Blu-ray release of The Black Waters of Echo's Pond is an alternate opening (SD, 2:36).
The Black Waters of Echo's Pond tackles a great idea but cannot follow through. It's quite gory, but the characters are poorly drawn and saddled with artificial arcs that only serve as a framework for the slicing and dicing to come. The acting isn't great, either, and the low budget production values are not enough to mask any of the other shortcomings. In sum, this is a rather miserable experience, but some fans of low-end Horror cinema may find it to their liking. Anchor Bay's Blu-ray release of The Black Waters of Echo's Pond delivers mediocre video, decent audio, and a brief supplement. Skip it.
Unrated
2018
1989
Collector's Edition
1981
Limited Edition
2009
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