Dark Water

Dark Water is another one of those slow PG-13, atmospheric and creepy ghost stories in the vein of The Ring and the Grudge, and like those two, it is worthwhile.

The film certainly has flaws, but it is also clever and has some great drama. Jennifer Connely also gives a strong performance, and the film as a whole is probably slower than someone would think. While it is not as scary as The Ring or The Grudge, it is in a way more mature than those two because it does excel in genres other than as a thriller. Overall, it was not amazing, but certainly underrated at this time and certainly worth it.

I agree with the user comment above in regard to the fact that teenagers will not appreciate this film. I kept telling myself as I was watching it, that it is not a movie that kids will understand. I shouldn't say 'all' kids, but probably most. Ironically, this is a movie that kids should see because they can learn about elements that a good movie usually contains: developed characters, a good plot, and excellent acting, to name a few. Not to mention that the movie gives the viewer a lot to think about and is an expertly crafted piece of psychological suspense.

There are reasons this movie will most likely not appeal to young people. To begin with, it is NOT a horror movie. It might be marketed to look like one, but it is more of a psychological thriller of sorts. So many kids will go to it expecting blood, gore and action, but get a literate, story-driven film instead--one in which thinking is required to fully understand what is going on. This is a movie that requires "active" viewing, just as if one were to read a well written novel with round characters, symbolism, and whatever other elements it may have to raise it beyond the level of mediocrity.

Unlike a more conventional horror movie like Boogeyman (which I also liked for other reasons), Dark Water is rooted in psychology and the inner and outer conflicts the characters attempt to overcome. It is also a film adept in creating a dark, disturbing mood. In fact, I was really impressed with its ability to play with one's emotions and fears so strongly. As another use noted above, it's almost as if the 'horror' is subliminal. The viewer doesn't necessarily have to see it in order to feel it. I think this is partly because we've all dealt with bits and pieces of what some of the main characters have to go through here. Some of their own discomfort seems familiar to us.

It is sad that many younger people cannot appreciate movies of this nature.

The Hollywood version of 'Dark Water' is based on a Japanese horror film, which I haven't seem, so I can't really compare the two. However, whether on not it surpasses its source material, I have to say it's a pretty creepy little number.

A woman (Jennifer Connelly) is going through a divorce and custody battle for her daughter (Ariel Gade) and moves to a run-down apartment in New York until the proceedings are over. It's hardly five-star housing and there are water leaks everywhere. And, if that wasn't bad enough to bring up a child, the family is haunted by the presence of another young girl.

Since the success of the English version of 'The Ring' the 2000s saw quite a few horror films where a woman slowly uncovers something supernatural until she has to confront it head on in the final act. 'Dark Water' certainly fits into that genre, but it's definitely a cut above the rest. For a start it has a stellar cast. I've already mentioned Connolly, but there are also excellent performances from Tim Roth as a supportive (but flawed!) lawyer, Pete Postlethwaite as a useless building supervisor and John C Reilly as the superbly-slimy estate agent. Dougray Scott is also good, but doesn't have quite as much to work with as the others and Ariel Gade is very good as the young girl, never really coming across as annoying as so many child actors in similar roles.

Another thing that works for the film is the atmosphere. You really get the sense of a dark, depressing world that's ripe for haunting by unrested spirits. It could be described as a bit of a 'slow burner' as the real 'meat' of the story doesn't really get going until the final act. Prior to that is mainly character building and setting up the horror that's finally waiting for our protagonists.

I won't say too much about the story, as you only really get one chance to watch it and not know where it's going. A couple of the plot points surprised me, so I won't spoil anything. It may not be a blood-bath and it's probably got a few too many 'jump scares' for some people's liking in the opening two acts, but, overall, it's a very atmospheric, creepy little number that horror fans who like a slow build of terror should enjoy.

Of all the recent remakes of Japanese horror films, I have to say that Dark Water is the only remake that actually surpasses the original. I think the reason that so many people are so hard on it is because they went in expecting to see THE RING or THE GRUDGE. They went in expecting to see a scary ghost movie. Dark Water is not really a horror movie, at least not in the traditional sense. It's actually more of a drama set in a haunted apartment complex. If you go in expecting to have stuff jump out at you, you will be disappointed.

It's sad that everyone expects horror films to have a bunch of jump scares in them these days. Whatever happened to the slow buildup of tension and paranoia of something like ROSEMARY'S BABY? If you go into Dark Water expecting something more akin to Rosemary's Baby or a Hitchcock thriller, you might just end up enjoying this film.

As far as comparing this remake to the original, I will say that I felt that Jennifer Connelly was a much more compelling character than the mother in the original movie. Overall, the characters were fleshed out better. I understood the conflict between the mother, the father and the little girl much more in the remake. The original just sort of glanced over many of these details. Some of the shots were actually more effective than the ones in the original, and the ending in the remake is more satisfying and better executed than in the original. Generally, I think that J-horror is better left in its original incarnation. As much as I liked the Western version of THE RING, I felt like the only reason they remade it was to cast Naomi Watts as the lead. THE GRUDGE, they should have left that one alone. Nothing was gained by Sarah Michelle Gellar. But this one, this one is actually better than the Japanese original in my opinion.

This movie is not for everyone. It is a slow, poignant drama set in a really creepy location. It would probably play well in a double feature with ROSEMARY'S BABY. If you want to have stuff jump out at you, watch THE GRUDGE. If you want to watch a movie that has a little more depth to it, watch DARK WATER.

"Don't let the rain come down" goes the old song. Not since Mike Nichols liberally used water as an ambivalent motif in The Graduate has water had such a psychological impact as it does in Dark Water, a thriller that abundantly uses horror story techniques but goes further to expose the tender nerve endings of a single mom, Dahlia, caught in a cheap Roosevelt Island apartment that drenches her and her young daughter, Ceci, incessantly both inside and out with leaking ceilings and flooding floors that promise drowning both real and figurative.

Outside the obligatory ghost, incompetent apartment super, and conflicted dad lies the awful reality of vulnerable women being forced to live in substandard housing, dangerous to health because separation leaves separating wife and husband with no means to do better. Jennifer Connelly as Dahlia has the right blend of intelligence and helplessness to bring off what might have been just another distraught 30-year old mom with seriously disturbing images of her own mother abandoning her early in life. The parallel legend of an abandoned little girl turned ghost and befriending Ceci emphasizes the universal problems faced by single mothers everywhere.

Director Walter Salles knows how to make Roosevelt Island look bleaker than an abandoned Riker's Island, more foreboding than Manhattan at dusk in a dirty winter, and yet as desirable as the nearest suburb given the astronomical rents on Manhattan Island in any year. The socially conscious Salles also hints at the secret lives of other Roosevelt detainees: a lawyer who lies about his domestic life and an apartment manager whose blather about the advantages of the decrepit apartment hides the horrors of leaking ceilings are just a few of the menaces the lonely mother faces.

Salles suggest the sacrifices a mother might have to make for her child are never gone, about as bleak as the island itself on its rainy days. Find a similar sense of abandonment and horror in The Others (2001). Any film that makes Manhattan warm by contrast is scary itself. The marginalized life of a distressed young mother has never been so well expressed as in this film, where islands are metaphors for people.

"Oh, it 's a snug little island! A right little, tight little island." Thomas Dibdin (1771-1841): The Snug Little Island.