It’s officially Spring 2019 and as we quickly fly through the mild months, Drowning Echo is a movie I want you to keep an eye on as we approach the hotter ones. The new film from writers Georges Padey and Itziar Martinez is a certified, clear water surprise and the perfect horror movie to ring in your summer viewing list. It’s coming out a little early – April 4th 2019 – on VOD and DVD courtesy of High Octane Pictures, so if you’re like me and you’re extremely organized, add this review to your bookmarks so you don’t forget. Directed by Georges Padey and formerly existing as “Nereus,” Drowning Echo finds a young woman visiting her friends before she’s plagued by nightmares of an unearthly creature in the family pool just outside her bedroom. Fear becomes reality when she discovers a mystical and malevolent creature lurks in the pool, and kills anyone who dares to take a dip. Curses and possession clash in Drowning Echo, starring Itziar Martinez, Raul Walder, Dennis Mencia, Josephine Phoenix, Sean Ormond, Natalie Blackman, Marlena Bauza and Mario Nalini. Try to picture The Sand meets The Pool meets The Ring. Yeah, I know that’s a lot to swallow.
Despite the silly plot, a creature that kills you if you go in a pool, I actually quite liked this movie. As I said in another review, every movie doesn’t have to be the next big thing in horror or the most talked about title of the year. It’s more than OK to be a good waste of an hour and a half, enough so that the audience can forget about their troubles and invest in canon fodder characters and adequate CGI monsters. Drowning Echo does just that – allows you to bring out that hokey taste in horror flicks that you don’t like to admit you have. For me, though, it takes me back to previous summers watching water-based, vacation-based scary movies with my friends with the air conditioning cranked on high. So, Drowning Echo is basically a throwback movie for me even though it never tries to be one. Maybe it’s a throwback to the 1960’s when creature features mixed with science fiction and fantasy, but that’s pushing it. And, hey, Drowning Echo would have been great if it aired on the SyFy Network when they were still doing the Saturday night movie debuts every week. All I’m saying is, this movie might not be for everybody, but it’s really going to make a splash with its intended demographic. See what I did there?
According to IMDB, Drowning Echo was filmed in and released in Turkey during its premiere screening dates. I loved the accents, especially the priestess at the end, and this title does have a little extra flair that you might not find in The United States. I also loved the suspense that was gradually built so well that you forget you’re watching a pool-based creature feature. Great writing and directing with the suspense and conflicts of interest that arise when people start getting knocked off. It takes away from the over-all hokiness of this movie. With smart style choices, expert camera work and cinematography from Georges Padey, sleek editing from Padey and Itziar Martinez, plus above average performances from the entire cast, Drowning Echo is pretty great. Again, the pool-based plot is really the only thing that hinders it from going on to becoming a much more successful story. A lake or even the beach would have made this thing look a lot more serious and that would have played into the mythical beast character a lot more. Luckily, there’s a ton of man-candy (no nudity, sorry) to jump in the pool and take my mind off tat shortcoming, and I’m vapid enough to give this movie an extra mark for that reason alone.
Add this movie to your summer viewing list and enjoy an hour and a half of SyFy-esque fun. Bring your swimmies and fight a centuries old evil in Drowning Echo. Very much recommending a VOD stream here. Final Score: 6.5 out of 10.
