Looking like a sequel to The Blair Witch Project the movie The Black Water Vampire tries to be a horror film, but comes up lame. The hour and a half film wanders, becomes repetitive and then finally gets some guts to the story. Direction by first timer Evan Tramel just doesn’t make the grade for this outing, although his camera management does show promise. The newbie actors just walk through the motions of their docu-type characters, while excellent make-up and prosthetic artists put on a great show.
Danielle Mason (Danielle Lozeau) is hell bent on making a documentary on four murders of young ladies that happened almost ten years ago. Because the evidence given at the trial was not conclusive that Raymond Banks (Bill Oberst Jr.) did the murders, she wants to revisit the crime scene at Black Water Creek and try to come up with an alternative killer. She gets her friend Rob (Robin Steffen) to handle the sound and Andrea (Andrea Monier) to produce the film with herself in front of the camera. For cameraman she takes on Anthony (Anthony Fanelli) who she found on the internet.
The four filmmakers set out to the mountains where the bodies were found trying to spot anything unusual with the area. They finally come upon the cabin where Raymond Banks lived during the murders and inspect the decaying shack. The next morning the crew heads out to the sites were each of the girls were killed some 20 miles away. When they start seeing symbols painted on the trees, find strange markings on their tent and get close to the answer to the deaths, they realize that they have walked into a place where there’s no return.
The low, low budget indie works their actors to the nub having them walk through snow, camp in the woods, get wet in streams and in one scene one of the cast walks naked in the cold slushy stuff. I have to hand it to the cast for being troopers to get a chance to be in front of the camera, but unfortunately the story and direction put a damper on their performances. There is one exception however, Bill Oberst Jr.’s performance as Raymond Banks. Very plausible, scary and bringing some ‘believability’ to the plot, he saves the film somewhat from an absolute bomb.
The other stars of the film are the make-up crew who designed one of the best vampires I’ve seen in a long stretch of horror films. The character is very creepy, captivating and provides enough terror to help the movie achieve some semblance of terror. Congratulations Alexandria Storm for the very chilling looking vampire that makes its way into the film in the final act. Inside the prosthetics and rubber suit Brandon deSpain brings reality to the make-up with some very frightening moves.
The DVD contains a ‘Making of’ bonus feature that gives you a chance to hear how the movie was put together. If you are an aspiring filmmaker on a low budget this may be a good informational video to see how they did it with little funds. I am amazed at the quality of the photography in the film, it is much better than The Blair Witch Project.
The Black Water Vampire has not been rated by the MPAA but does contain language, violence and full frontal nudity.
Specifications and additional film information:
Cast: Danielle Lozeau, Andrea Monier, Anthony Fanelli, Robin Steffen, Bill Oberst Jr. and Brandon deSpain
Director/Writer: Evan Tramel
MPAA Rating: Unrated, Language, Nudity
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Running Time: 1 hr 22 min
Video Release Date: January 21, 2014
Language: English
Format: DVD
Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1
Video: Widescreen Aspect Ratio 1.78:1
Subtitles: None
Number of Discs: 1 Disc
Distributed by: RLJ Entertainment
Writer, critic, film editor John Delia, Sr. has been on all sides of the movie business from publications to film making. He has worked as a film critic with ACED Magazine for more than 20 years and other publications for a total of 40 years. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of Florida. John is a member of the Southeastern Film Critics Association and Critics Association of Central Florida Send John a message at jdelia@acedmagazine.com
