Dark Water

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.

After separation her husband (Dougray Scott) and taking custody her daughter (Ariel) , Dahlia (Jennifer Connelly , though Jennifer Love Hewitt turned down this role) attempts to do a new start . The apartment she moves alongside her daughter seems perfect at first . Dahlia carries her daughter to nearly school where the teacher (Camyn Manheim) teaches her and she , subsequently , hires a lawyer (Tim Roth) for the divorce . Soon , though , weird things start happening into house . Huge water stains appear on the ceiling and drip constantly , more water and oozing liquid into the rooms everyday . She calls the doorkeeper (Pete Postlehwaite) and the landlord (John C. Reilly) but they refuse to make anything about it . A child's red bag shows up in odd places and soon the child herself starts appearing and causing usual poltergeists phenomenon recreated with high grade special effects . Dahlia then discovers the origin of the specter .

This new version of Hideo Nakata film is plenty of screams , fear , suspense , thriller and results to be quite entertaining . The terror moments are delivered compactly and quietly with no fuss . The script copies exactly the Japan original movie without surprises . While the look is suitable atmospheric and eerie , the plot stretches plausibility to the breaking point . Nice acting by Jennifer Connelly , she turned down the role of Paige in ¨House of wax¨ (2005) , another horror remake , in order to appear in this one . Colorful cinematography by Alfonso Beato , usual cameraman of Salles , and creepy musical score fitting to horror movie by Angelo Badalamenti (Twin Peaks) . The motion picture was well realized by Walter Salles , in spite of little originality . Salles is the number one producer (City of God , Lower city) and director (Motorcycle diaries , Central Station , Behind the sun) from Brasil and recently making an American career . The flick will appeal to terror cinema buffs, well worth seeing.

This is not a "child talks to dead people" movie. You should rejoice. It's not a "woman fights supernatural forces" thriller. You should get down on your knees and thank the powers that be. This is not "just an unnecessary re-make of the Japanese original". It's better.

Nakata is famous for taking the long view of his characters. Keeping us safe emotionally from them in order to bring the horror to life. Salles trumps him by pulling us right into Dahlia's arms where her fear, paranoia, and despair are absolutely palpable.

This is the story of a single mother trying to survive after a nasty divorce. Trying to hold onto her daughter so she can overcome her own history of abandonment. The ghosts (whether real or imagined) are peripheral to her dilemma.

The American Dark Water, gives us the same foreboding leak, the same bleak horrific photography, the same basic plot line, and yet by taking the emphasis off the ghosts reaches a much stronger emotional resonance.

Highly recommended for those that submit themselves to movies, rather than submit movies to themselves. You know who you are.

"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.

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.