DVD Review: The Black Water Vampire

By Brad Henderson

It seems that every week a found footage flick is released. This is met with a lot of negativity and people tend to brush them off without even watching them. The style seems to get an automatic eye roll these days, which frustrates me because people just think that if they’ve seen one, they’ve seen them all. We also hear that they are cheap, silly, or just plain boring. Honestly, the same could be said for everything you watch. Found footage is just another way to tell a story and it’s no different from what we consider the norm.

As for me, I love found footage films. I love how the stories are told. I’m one of those people who seeks out found footage so I’ve seen just about every single one of them. Yes, even the 99 cent ones on Amazon. Now I will admit that I’ve seen more bad than good, but there are still a buttload of decent flicks out there.

Recently I watched The Black Water Vampire. From the title and the cover art, I wasn’t all that excited about it. Honestly, I didn’t even know that it was found footage until it started. Like I said, I’m a fan of found footage but it’s next to impossible to keep up with what is released. The Black Water Vampire is your typical found footage flick, but that isn’t a bad thing.

I will agree that there isn’t anything unique or different about this movie but it does found footage pretty well. A group of “filmmakers” go on a mission to do their own investigation about the Black Water Killings. Although a man has turned himself in for these crimes there was a lack of evidence so they don’t think that he was the one responsible. All the victims have had weird bite marks on their necks.

The title and cover automatically give away what is responsible for these killings so there’s no surprise there. You just wait to see this creature and what it looks like. Luckily it shows up a little earlier than expected and starts to wreak havoc. The scares are decent and the acting is pretty believable but once the scares start, they just repeat and repeat until the conclusion.

The Black Water Vampire isn’t a bad film but it isn’t great, either. It does have its moments and is at least interesting for the most part. I’m just glad they didn’t wait until the last second to show the creature or make you think that there isn’t a creature to begin with.

All in all if you enjoy found footage like me you will be slightly pleased with this film, but if you hate this way of storytelling then I suggest you stay away from it. Not because it is bad, but I really don’t want to hear your “found footage is boring” routine.

The Black Water Vampire was released on DVD on January 21 from Image Entertainment.