A hundred years ago, a boat sank in an Austrian lake. Now, the place is supposedly haunted by the ghost of the vengeance-seeking boat captain. Things go from bad to worse when villagers begin turning up dead. Flummoxed, the local police call on the services of a psychic investigator from America (Joel Fabiani) to check the place out. Along with a reporter (former Bond girl Karin Dor from You Only Live Twice), he does some digging before eventually coming face to face with the gruesome ghost.
Dark Echoes was the sole writing and directing credit for the awesomely named George Robotham, who was a stuntman and bit player for most of his career. He specialized in underwater sequences, which probably explains all the scuba diving scenes in the third act. Fabiani’s extended underwater fight with the “ghost” is OK, but it doesn’t quite make up for the long, pointless slow-motion shots of him skiing early in the film though.
The investigation scenes into the town’s past are rather pedestrian. There’s definitely a Scooby-Doo kind of vibe going on as the skull-faced boat captain looks very much like the sort of villain of the week Shaggy and the gang would encounter. (He was created by none other than Planet of the Apes’ John Chambers.) The ghost attack sequences are decent enough I suppose, but the pacing is much too leisurely to build any real suspense.
The subplot about a witch and her coven of cult members performing a ritual in the town’s catacombs is kind of fun though, especially when they break out into a half-assed dance number. It’s here where some of the frenzied ladies in the group slip in and out of their robes. The nudity from these probably unknown actresses is the definite high point in what is an otherwise tepid horror flick. Our hero’s frequent psychic episodes, which are accompanied by a humorous sounding sting on the soundtrack, are good for a chuckle or two, and there’s a hilariously bad decapitation in there as well. Despite those quality moments, I’m sure Dark Echoes won’t reverberate with most viewers.
AKA: Dark Echo.
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