The Black Waters of Echo's Pond is a strikingly inept film. That said, I'm not entirely convinced that filmmaker Gabriel Bologna set out to make a great horror movie. Clearly all filmmakers want to make the best film they can, but it's fair to say that some filmmakers know that all they're making is an irreverent, largely-pointless way to occupy 90 minutes of your time. Films of this reach enter production with a rudimentary check list of what they imagine the target audience wants to see and they then make sure that by the time the credits roll all the boxes have been ticked off. That's it; they bring nothing more and that's okay in their book because they also hope you're expecting nothing more.If all you're in the mood for is a horror movie that's going to offer up, at some point, a few memorable gore gags and some sexuality, then The Black Waters of Echo's Pond delivers. If you require a comprehensible plot with characters that don't make you want to set your head on fire to drown out the sound of them talking, on the other, more rational hand, then do not stop here. Those crucial items do not exist on Bologna's checklist.
Echo's Pond opens with an interesting enough, although familiar, conceit. A Turkish archaeological dig in the 1920s has unearthed a game of sorts dedicated to Pan, the God of Pandemonium. The artifact makes its way back to America but when the dig's sponsor arrives at his private island to collect the find he is met with the bloody aftermath of the game. Cut to a present day group of co-eds who have arrived at said private island to do what all co-eds in horror movies do; drink and have sex. When one of the group finds the ancient game, the new party objective is to drink and have sex while playing a board game.
