The Drownsman

The Drownsman follows several characters as they’re stalked and murdered by the title figure, with the movie detailing the survivors’ efforts at uncovering the killer’s murky past and, eventually, putting a stop to his watery reign of terror. Director Chad Archibald kicks The Drownsman off with a seriously underwhelming opening that immediately sets a tone of incompetence and pointlessness, with the filmmaker offering up a generic narrative that’s almost entirely lacking in compelling elements. (There’s a seance sequence that stands as a nigh incongruously intriguing exception to this feeling.) The run-of-the-mill vibe (this is, after all, just a poorly-conceived riff on A Nightmare on Elm Street) is compounded by an unreasonably deliberate pace and a flat, hopelessly non-threatening villain, with, in terms of the latter, scripters Archibald and Cody Calahan unable to transform the character into a wholeheartedly frightening figure. (It doesn’t help, either, that his backstory and powers remain oddly undefined.) There’s little doubt, as well, that The Drownsman suffers from a tedious midsection revolving around the protagonists’ investigation into their stalker’s upbringing, while the increased emphasis on hoary plot twists and instances of dialogue ensure that one’s patience grows awfully thin as time (slowly) progresses. The seemingly endless climactic stretch confirms The Drownsman‘s place as a rather worthless homegrown endeavor, and it’s difficult not to wonder why this or any other film festival would willingly screen it.

*1/2 out of ****