''The Drownsman'' is a 2014 Canadian horror/fantasy thriller that was directed by

Chad Archibald Chad Archibald (born 30 July 1981) is a Canadian film, television and music video producer and director.melissa ann deark hearts , melissa ann sainz co editor Filmography Film *''Bite (film), Dark hearts - dark souls, melissa ann'' (2005) *''K ...

, who co-wrote the script with Cody Calahan. The film had its world premiere on 2 August 2014 at the

Fantasia Film Festival Fantasia International Film Festival (also known as Fantasia-fest, FanTasia, and Fant-Asia) is a film festival that has been based mainly in Montreal since its founding in 1996. Regularly held in July of each year, it is valued by both hardcore ...

and stars Michelle Mylett as a

hydrophobic In chemistry, hydrophobicity is the physical property of a molecule that is seemingly repelled from a mass of water (known as a hydrophobe). In contrast, hydrophiles are attracted to water. Hydrophobic molecules tend to be nonpolar and, th ...

young woman that finds that the cure might be worse than the fear itself. Filming took place in

Guelph, Ontario Guelph ( ; 2021 Canadian Census population 143,740) is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. Known as "The Royal City", Guelph is roughly east of Kitchener and west of Downtown Toronto, at the intersection of Highway 6, Highway 7 and Welli ...

during winter of 2013.

Plot

A near-death experience in a lake leaves Madison (

Michelle Mylett Robyn Michelle Mylett (born January 4, 1989) is a Canadian actress. She is best known for her role as Katy on the comedy series ''Letterkenny'' (2016–present). Early life Mylett was raised in Ladysmith, a town on Vancouver Island in British C ...

) with extreme hydrophobia. It's grown so bad that she's unable to attend her best friend Hannah's (Caroline Korycki) wedding because of the rain, as Madison believes that a sinister figure known as the Drownsman (Ry Barrett) will pull her into his world and kill her. In their attempt to help her, Madison's friends try to hold a seance to make contact with this being and find that Madison is being haunted by Sebastian Donner (also played by Barrett), a serial killer that loved to listen to his victims' hearts beat as they slowly died. However the group soon finds that their attempts to help Madison has caused the Drownsman to notice them as well and he begins to pick them off one by one.

Cast

as Madison *Caroline Korycki as Hannah *Gemma Bird Matheson as Kobie *Sydney Kondruss as Lauren *Clare Bastable as Cathryn *Ry Barrett as The Drownsman / Sebastian Donner *JoAnn Nordstrom as Isabelle Heller *Samuel Borstein as Henley Jacobs *Derrek Peels as Carter *Breanne TeBoekhorst as Julia *Katie Nicole Evans as Young Isabelle Heller

Reception

''Nerdly'' gave ''The Drownsman'' three out of five stars, writing "As an homage to the works of

Carpenter Carpentry is a skilled trade and a craft in which the primary work performed is the cutting, shaping and installation of building materials during the construction of buildings, Shipbuilding, ships, timber bridges, concrete formwork, etc. ...

, Craven et al. it works. As a origin story for a new franchise villain it works. As a movie? Well if you're willing to ignore the odd flaw even in the films own internal logic like I did, then ''The Drownsman'' works. If not…" ''

Twitch Film Screen Anarchy, previously known as Twitch Film or Twitch, is a Canadian English-language website featuring news and reviews of mainly international, independent and cult films. The website was founded in 2004 by Todd Brown. In addition to films, ...

'' gave a mixed review, commenting that the film "made a valiant effort to bring itself around with strong visuals and a decent villain kill. It did not fully recover for me, but I still enjoyed the ride for the 'moist' part".

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Drownsman, The 2010s slasher films American slasher films 2014 horror films 2014 films Films shot in Ontario American horror thriller films Supernatural slasher films 2014 horror thriller films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films