Dark Waters: André De Toth

[Warning: Spoilers Ahead]

The strength of André De Toth's Dark Waters can be explained by its sinister atmosphere and its director's brilliant stylistic flourishes. This is a film that is meant to be watched and felt on a basic, primal level. For when you take the time to examine the actual plot, the film falls apart. The film follows a young woman named Leslie suffering from intense psychological anguish after watching her parents drown when the Germans sunk their ship while on the high seas. Her doctor recommends that she travel to rural Louisiana where she can be with her estranged aunt and uncle and recuperate. But her relatives aren't what they seem and soon she is submitted to a devious plot to gaslight her. It's revealed that her "relatives" are imposters and that they want to drive her mad so they can get money...through some system which is either feebly explained or ignored altogether. Here's my question: if they are willing to outright murder her by the end of the film, why didn't they do just that at the start? Why couldn't they have thrown her into a quicksand pit the moment she arrived and claim that she got lost in the swamp? But despite this fumbling plot, Dark Waters is an engrossing film. De Toth's methods are those of restraint and almost subliminal stylistics. Take an early scene where Leslie drives up to their New Orleans mansion for the first time. Most of it is done in a medium long-shot with no edits. Creating a strange, detached atmosphere, the audience is made to feel like a bystander instead of merely a voyeur. John J. Mescall, the noted cinematographer of genre classics like The Black Cat (1934) and Bride of Frankenstein (1935), brings both his claustrophobic interiors and dark, muggy exteriors to brilliant life. Additional sequences involving local French Cajuns may be unnecessary for the narrative, but they give the film an additional boost of energy and joy. They help make the audience feel like they aren't watching a low-budget potboiler. But there is no sin in meager means, particularly for a film as inventive and hypnotic as Dark Waters.

7/10