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The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

First addressing the issue of availability: It's not on DVD, but it's online, in full. However, it's a little hard to find, since it's under its Japanese title (but the movie is in English, and without subtitles or anything, and the quality is quite good.) Best google it as 'Dark Echoes 1977', and it'll direct you to the youtube link.As for the movie itself: It's a strange but enjoyable little piece. A mixture of travelogue and horror movie. It has some gorgeous settings (the lake, the castle ruins, the cave), a distinctly European flair (the Austrian village with its pub and church, the strange local customs ("What's he doing?" - "He's the village artist. He paints the skulls for us." - "Paints the skulls?! What for?"), etc.), some nice underwater photography, and a very leisurely pace (you'll need some patience and a bit of an attention span). It also has a likable hero and heroine: the American psychic Bill Cross (Joel Fabiani, "Department S"), who somehow manages to digest quarter-liters (!) of dry martini and still stay sober for the ghost-hunt, and the local journalist Lisa Bruekner (Karin Dor, "You Only Live Twice"). Actually, the mysterious sinking of the boat (no witnesses, no survivors, no explanation ever found) would make a good case for "Department S". And "You Only Live Twice" is certainly true for the zombie captain of the boat. There's also the rather fascinating character of the witch (Hungarian actress Hanna Hertelendy, "Raid On Entebbe"). The acting is decent, the story is solid, and apart from its slow pace, it's really not a bad movie. It definitely has its moments, even if he horror is rather subtle. On the other hand, it also has its involuntarily comical moments, like the weird cult's clandestine meetings in the cavern, and especially when some of he minor characters sound as if these were the only lines in English they ever uttered in their lives. Come to think of it, that may actually be the case... But then again, you could see that as part of he movie's unique charm. All in all, if you like strange European horror flicks, by all means, give it a try. At best late at night (like, around midnight, perhaps), with a snack and/or one of the hero's favorite martinis, and when you're in the right mood, it should make for a rather enjoyable experience. So, on a good day - or rather, night - eight out of ten, for the sheer fun of it.

I don't know of the Argentine VHS release but I own an original Japanese VHS release on the TCC Video label. It's not even that good of a film. Rather hokey but perhaps enjoyable for fans of trash cinema (like myself). I doubt that any major U.S. video companies will be jumping at the chance to put this one out on DVD. However, it would be nice to see it in a nice widescreen transfer. The Japanese VHS is full screen (pan & scan) with only letterboxed opening credits. I don;t know much about the director but was wondering if he did any other horror flicks or if this was just a cash in attempt at the zombie craze of the late 70's into early 80's.

What we have here is an extremely hard-to-find Austrian/Yugoslavian 'underwater ghost/zombie' flick that, to my knowledge, was never released legitimately on DVD or VHS anywhere other than Argentina (who had a video released many years back through TVE), Japan and Poland. I also can't find any verification online about whether it ever played theatrically or not. There's almost no information about this title even here at IMDb. It's very slow-going and probably of minimal interest to most because of that, but still has some merit and parts of it are interesting. And since there actually weren't that many zombie movies released during the 1970s (LET SLEEPING CORPSES LIE, DAWN OF THE DEAD and ZOMBI 2 being the three major ones), it's probably worth a look for die-hard zombie movie completists. Watching a combination of American, British and European (French, Hungarian, German...) actors filling out the cast, all of whom speak English with varying degrees of success, makes it a bit hard to get a feel for the location. The plot (which reminded me of THE FOG with a little SHOCK WAVES thrown in) involves a series of mysterious murders plaguing a small, lakeside village in Austria. The local police (headed by Wolfgang Brook) are aided in their investigation by American psychic Bill Cross (Joel Fabiani), local writer Lisa Brueckner (Karin Dor) and others. The killer turns out to be a skull-faced zombie/ghost sea captain who resides in wreckage at the bottom of the lake during the day but sneaks up to the village at night to kill off the descendants of those responsible for his death years earlier. There's also some old backwoods witch with a raven on her shoulder who secretly leads a cult of young villagers. These scenes didn't seem to have a lot to do with the main plot line but they're colorful and do provide some gratuitous nudity.First, the negatives... It takes about an hour to actually get a good look at the killer, and the first introduction of it (which should have been jarring) is a bit fumbled. ** It's extremely talky and some of the dialogue is terrible. ** The 'idiot plot' syndrome rears its ugly head quite a few times, especially when Dor's character - one of the killer's targets - is left alone out in the middle of a field while a mob goes off into the woods chasing after the killer. ** It's lacking in blood/gore aside from one underwater stabbing and a surprisingly gory decapitation complete with brains oozing out of the top of a head. Now on to the better stuff... The acting is decent. ** It's well photographed, including some decent underwater photography. ** The village setting is atmospheric, and good use is made out of crumbling old churches and other buildings. ** The music score is excellent. ** The zombie design (from John Chambers and Tom Burman) is rather good. ** Despite the fact the zombie is kept off screen until near the end, the POV camera-work of a growling, heavy-breathing killer is well done and creepy, and good use is made of shadow on several occasions. ** Several of the deaths, while lacking in blood, are still effective and somewhat brutal, including a woman pushed out of a building and landing on a rocky embankment below. There are certainly worse films out there, but there are also better ones. Still, if you're like me and love older zombie films or finding obscure films few people have seen, this is worth a watch. Director George Robotham is best known as a Hollywood stunt double for the likes of Rock Hudson, Clark Gable and John Wayne. DARK ECHOES marks his first and only film as director. He was married to lead actress Dor from 1988 until his death in 2007 from Alzheimer's complications.

The zombie ghost of a drowned excursion boat captain Manfred Gohr haunts an Austrian lake in search of vengeance against those who caused the accident.The plot of "Dark Echo" sounds familiar for an avid horror fan.It pretty much reminded me John Carpenter's horror classic "The Fog".The film offers some atmospheric moments shot in caves and old castles and few interesting underwater shots.The gore is completely absent apart from badly made decapitation of the witch.The acting is decent,but the pace is terribly slow.Still if you are a collector of extremely tough to find European horror films you can give "Dark Echo" a look.I'm also sure that Robotham's debut was released many years ago in Poland on VHS under the title "Mroczna glebia".6 out of 10.