It was a dark and stormy night . . .
. . . and that’s how much of Blackwater Lane remains, taking viewers by no surprise whatsoever as a thriller fails to wash the soap opera off all of its limbs.
While it does make its intentions all too terribly clear way too soon, Blackwater Lane has a few moments of tension and suspense which should earn it some praise when it comes to its audience. Just don’t go in expecting a tight thriller as there’s far too many scenes explained to us . . . either by dialogue or depiction.
Thing is, we’ve seen much of this gaslighting before. The conspiracy-minded thriller has moments where clarity strikes but, outside of an opening which sees us moving through a house until a bird bonks itself on an outside window, there’s far too much placed on repeat and explained clearly to us by its cast.
This could have been an engaging offering from director Jeff Celentano (Moscow Heat, Breaking Point), who provides the viewer with some grade A paranoia as one woman struggles to maintain her sanity in a house which may or may not be haunted, but there’s a predictability which weighs it down in some very shallow waters.
Which is too bad. There’s more here than a dark and stormy night, but you’d be hard pressed to find it thanks to a by-the-numbers adaptation of a B.A. Harris novel.
This is a film with more than its fair share of marital affairs and, as you might be dialed in to what Blackwater Lane is selling, its secrets are revealed in obvious manners. It’s a marital thriller which begs you to believe in the supernatural but doesn’t want you to look to closely as Cass Anderson (Minka Kelly, The Pumpkin Karver), a teacher and a tarot reader, wrestles with the ghosts of her past in an inherited estate she shares with her husband, Matthew (Dermot Mulroney) upon a tragic death.
But things are not what they seem as the death of a woman (Jane Walters) on a dark and stormy night leads police to feel Cass is a suspect worthy of pursuing. Could she have done it?
Tackling tropes we’ve seen a million times before in better films, Blackwater Lane is mostly a listless affair and the actors involved - including Maggie Grace and Natalie Simpson - don’t help matters. The script is filled with tension, yet what’s being communicated on the screen just spells out the tangled web which is being woven around Cass, who really doesn’t earn much sympathy from the audience.
Plaion Pictures will release Blackwater Lane as a digital download in the UK from 27th January 2025. It’s already available in the US via Lionsgate.
MPAA Rating: PG-13.
Runtime: 108 mins
Director: Jeff Celentano
Writer: Elizabeth Fowler; B.A. Paris
Cast: Minka Kelly; Dermot Mulroney; Maggie Grace
Genre: Crime | Drama
Tagline: A House of Horrors
Memorable Movie Quote:
Distributor: Lionsgate
Official Site:
Release Date: June 21, 2024
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date:
Synopsis: Late one night a woman drives by a stranded motorist who is later revealed to have been murdered. After a series of terrifying events the woman believes she is the killer's next victim.