The Black Waters of Echo's Pond (2009) starring Robert Patrick, Danielle Harris, Sean Lawlor, James Duval directed by Gabriel Bologna Movie Review

The Black Waters of Echo's Pond (2009)   2/52/52/52/52/5


Danielle Harris in The Black Waters of Echo's Pond (2009)

Beware Black Eyes

A group of young people head to an old house on the remote Beacon's Isle for some fun and games where upon they discover an ancient board game which almost 90 years had arrived on the island following an archeological dig in some Turkish ruins when a traumatized young man hides it there. But these young friends which include the cynical Kathy (Danielle Harris) and the tarty Veronique (Mircea Monroe) are in for a shock when they start to play the game as it causes their deepest desires and darkest secrets to come to the surface as they start to turn on each other.

"The Black Waters of Echo's Pond" is the most simplest of movies to review and I can split it in to two parts. The first part is the whole game malarkey with it being discovered in Turkey and hidden in this house almost 90 years earlier. Think "Jumanji" and you will quickly get the gist except of course this is a horror movie so the stuff which happens to them is more along the lines of scary stuff. In fairness some of the scary stuff works because it does the sudden fright stuff but for the most it is incredibly tedious as each person becomes controlled by the board causing them to speak their mind, having a go at each other and in some cases lusting after each other. That is really the movie's thing, the stuff which happens when people start saying what they really mean and being brutal in their honesty.

As for the other part? Well lets me see a group of young people in an old house on an island with no cell phone activity it doesn't take a genius to know how things are going to play out. It is that typical and I wish I could say it wasn't but sadly it is and despite featuring some likeable young stars such as Danielle Harris it suffers from one unlikeable character after another.

What this all boils down to is that "The Black Waters of Echo's Pond" is a huge misfire of a movie which sort of had a reasonable idea but ended up way of course with too many cliches and even more unlikeable characters. Maybe in the hands of someone like Wes Anderson "The Black Waters of Echo's Pond" might have ended up an entertaining, tongue in cheek horror flick but this is a disappointment.


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