The Watermen (2011)

Sadly Over-hyped

I wanted to but couldn't!

A Disappointing Continuation

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

must be something an intellectual challenge for a producer of a horror film to bring something new to the genre table . Imagine the screenplay of THE WATERMEN in development " Hmmm . Horny teenagers in peril . How we going to bring a new angle to this premise ? " " I know . Let's make it as unpleasant as possible and set it on a remote boat yard ? "Hardly an original idea setting it in a boatyard but one thing the producers have done in way of qualified success is to make the film as unpleasant as possible .. I've seen a lot of horror films that more often than not have bored me rigid . Not so with THE WATERMEN . It's a slasher flick crossed with torture porn and while the torture is very graphic the operative word from the phrase " torture porn " isn't " torture " but " porn " . . By accident or design director Mark L Lockhart seems to linger a bit too long on the bodies of the female characters as they're physically abused by the watermen of the title . . The on screen violence is genuinely shocking and brutal so much so that I was tempted to switch off a few times . If the agenda of this film is to disturb and alienate the audience then it's mission accomplished but my own opinion is that even a horror film should have an element of morals and entertainment value and THE WATERMEN has none of these important things

Heading out for a relaxing cruise on a small boat, a group of friends learn their boats' troubles allow them to fall into the hands of a group of deranged butchers cutting up human flesh to haul in more fish and must try to get away from the group.This here wasn't all that great and really had a lot of problems. One of the biggest is the fact that there's just no way to really take the group of hunters here seriously enough as a threat. Speaking in mumbled accents that make their intended threats barely audible, working a storyline that makes no sense and basically offering nothing of any real substance here that makes it come together in any shape or form, all of which work to make the group of butchers completely ridiculous as threats. The fact that there's very few encounters between them and the friends also really hinders them since we don't get to see them in action beyond slicing up the bodies or hunting them down, so we don't get a sense of fear from them since there's no home-field advantage being in the swampy, forested areas with only one sequence showing that and they get easily out-gunned in the situation anyway which really just throws the whole thing for a loop. So much is spent on them being ruthless butchers that they get outsmarted, and really only have the upper hand with weapons since the hand-to-hand combat is to the way of the group so they don't even have that. An extra-long set-up time to actually get to the island makes for a rather distressing time since the group of friends are the typical uninteresting and self-involved jerks that make it easy to want them dead. Thankfully, it's saved by a fine last-half that really puts the confrontations back-to-back-to-back that allows for a lot of great action, some pretty gory dismembering that's effectively bloody and tons of nudity from those well-qualified to deliver it. All in all, this one is pretty disappointing.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Extreme Graphic Language and Nudity.

Having read some of the other 14 reviews of The Watermen, I was almost tempted not to watch it (even though I was given a copy for free). Come on people, you knew before you watched this movie that is was a low- budget, no-big-name (including the director) effort!Sure, it was no blockbuster either but it wasn't all THAT bad! Sure, there were some rather stupid bits - like, for example (and as someone else pointed out) where the last surviving "good guy" insists on going back to the place of absolute terror "to get medical supplies" - NO ONE in such a situation would EVER make such an idiotic suggestion! But, allowing for the fact that no viewer has ever BEEN in such a situation, how do we know how we might behave? Has anyone thought about that?Sure, the plot was somewhat bizarre (to say the least) - but then aren't most horror movies like that? I mean, no one who was dead came back from the dead - again and again - as they do in some much higher-rated horror flicks. I would have liked to see some of the bad guys get more graphically dealt with - like, at least as bad as they were dishing out and there is no doubt that the avid horror-flick addicts would have appreciated that but, all-in-all, The Watermen was all that bad and, contrary to what someone suggested, a lot more fun than watching grass grow!

The Watermen Delivers!!!Loved the story line and locations. Cool aerial shots. Group of college kids go out on a fishing trip then get terrorized by this clan of Watermen. For what it was it kept me on the edge of my seat. Joy Glass - the Lisa character - is a hot and from playboy - fun seeing her topless all over the place. Great action scenes and I don't believe they pulled off some of this on that low of a budget. Nice to see a film not just be about blood and boobs.Looks like this film also won a few film festival awards so that's always good to see. The acting was pretty good - believable and in the intense scenes great - but these look like all first timers to me. First time director too. Not bad for just out of the gate. All in all we loved it and even watched some scenes twice.