The Watermen (2012)
A clan of watermen (fishermen) abduct a group of unwary travellers from their luxury yacht and take them back to their island to chop them up and sell them as bait. An intense fight for survival ensues as our intrepid young heroes try to escape with their lives.
The Watermen has everything thrown into the mix in this modern outdoor survival horror. A lot of violence,- Breast implants removed with dirty knives, arms sliced open and pitch forks through legs are just a few of the juicy highlights, as well as the usual gruesome imagery, rape, and a director who seems determined for his leading ladies to flash their boobs at every opportunity.
The film has plenty of minus points. The opening scenes are practically amateur hour with the three lead actresses seemingly reading their lines from cue cards, and the early scenes with the three guys had me almost switching off as Jason Mewes shoved his ball sack into the camera. Fortunately things soon settled down, Mewes stopped the shite impersonation of his popular Jay role from his time working with Kevin Smith and we actually had a bit of characterization. There were also a few plot holes big enough for a trawler to sail through but i can forgive those. The Watermen themselves appeared almost inhuman, their voices echoing like ambient sound rather than audible dialogue which was odd to say the least.
Admittedly i'm a fan of survival horror, and on the whole i liked this film. What set it apart for me was the setting. It's very rare for a low budget horror film to be set out at sea making the first fifty minutes quite memorable, so its only the final third that comes onto shore, albeit an island, and the film becomes generic hack n' slash in the vein of Storm Warning. The location photography was very good, at times beautiful, at other times quite foreboding.
I may well be on my own in liking this film. indeed it has an air bordering on misogyny that may put some off, but if you enjoy survival horror then it may be worth ninety minutes of your time.
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