Good morning, House of Madness wanderers:
About a month ago, I did a write-up on "The Outwaters", so if you would like a brief synopsis of the film, please check it out here.
Every time I hear or read about a new horror film, I try to keep an even keel when it comes time for my actual experience, as I don't like to head into something unknown with preset expectations. How many times have you taken a friend's advice on 'the World's Best Pizza', and as you get the masterful pie home with your glands salivating, stomach rumbling, and taste buds hallucinating, you're let down by a bland, soggy mess? More than a few for me. Nothing worse than being set up on a blind date, and pre-judging your upcoming experience based on a picture taken 11 years prior, and they're clearly having the best hair day ever; too bad they have the personality of a rutabaga, and smell twice as bad. It's so hard to go into a situation with a fresh perspective, especially when it comes to something appealing that you so badly want to love; you raise your expectations so high to the point that Willie Nelson says to himself "Now that's motherfuckin' high!". Having lowered expectations may sound like a better recipe for enjoyment, as you're leaving yourself wide open to be pleasantly impressed, but this method can backfire as well - ever been to Arby's and tried enjoying a sandwich after a twenty minute ride of anticipatory dread? Good luck with that. I'm rambling on because I had expectations from Canada to the moon when it came to "The Outwaters", and in doing so I left myself vulnerable to the merciless, brutish sting of disappointment, when, had I gone into the film with a level head and no expectations, I definitely would have had a better experience.
"The Outwaters" certainly isn't a bad film, far from it actually, but it does suffer from a few issues that will definitely repel some viewers. The first and biggest problem is the plot - it's almost non-existent, so as the characters arrive in the desert, we really have no idea why or for what reason until their arrival. Next, there's character building to create a bond or likeness to the people on screen, so we don't mentally check out if something extraordinarily good or horrifically bad were to happen to them, and then there's character building used simply as a tool to prolong and extend the film's run time. "The Outwaters" suffers greatly from this, and with a run-time of just under two hours, I honestly feel it would have been better received had it been in the 80-85 minute range. There is a lot of filler, and sometimes less really is more. My last gripe is the use of the camera - I'm not whining because of a shaky handheld device used to project the terrors directly into my cranium, found footage is by far my favourite horror genre; what I am complaining about is what director Robbie Banfitch chose to focus on during the insane carnage that was happening in the complete darkness. Like I just said moments ago, sometimes less is more, but other times more is better, and I really could have done with a better perspective on the madness clearly happening through misguided footage.
Now for the good; as I started with,"The Outwaters" isn't a bad film, and once the absolutely insane gore, carnage, and havoc begins, it's impossible to look away from the gruesome Lovecraftian inspired monster mayhem, and the feeling of inescapable dread consumes your soul. It's just too bad I couldn't actually see most of it, and by the time the film reached its climax, my over-hyped and empirical expectations were soggy, like an under cooked pizza recommended by the chef; next time I'll taste the cooking before I apotheosize the entire menu.
Madness Meter: 5.2/10
NB
