Director: Hideo Nakata
Starring: Hitomi Kuroki, Rio Kanno, Mirei Oguchi

- Reviewed by Linda

Who would have thought that a creeping water stain on the ceiling could be so menacing?

Dark Water is a stripped-down, old-school chiller. Do you remember the good old days when horror movies didn't need to depend on gore and special effects, but rather mood and ambience? I think splatterfests have been done to death (no pun intended), so it is refreshing to see a resurgence of good old-fashioned mystery/thrillers that depend on craft of storytelling rather than simple shock-value (see also The Others).

We meet a lovely recently-divorced and emotionally frazzled woman searching for a new apartment with her cute-as-a-button 6-year-old daughter. With the worry of finding a job to support her child, and the stress of meetings with her ex-husband who threatens to take custody of their daughter, she takes pretty much the first cheap apartment she finds.

OK, if you've ever gone apartment-hunting, don't choose one with really bad lighting, decrepit concrete walls, and the dark humming of menacing violins when you step in the elevator (oh, maybe only WE could hear that!). It doesn't help that the apartment manager turns a deaf ear when you complain about the dripping and ever-growing water stain that's growing like a beast on your bedroom ceiling.

If that isn't bad enough, enter a mysterious (and creepy-as-hell) apparition of a little emotionless girl in a yellow raincoat, strange noises from the ceiling, a local legend of a child disappearing from the local kindergarten two years earlier, and the constant and relentless downpour of monsoon season as a backdrop.

Dark Water is stylish and slow-moving. Director Hideo Nakata (who did the legendary horror film Ring and its sequel) works from a story by Kôji Suzuki (known as "the Stephen King of Japan"). The tone and story actually reminded me quite a bit of Stephen King's own The Shining. Clues are planted along the way (in retrospect, you think, "duh!"), but are subtle enough that I didn't figure out the chilling mystery before the characters on screen did, making for a satisfying surprise.

Overall, Nakata has made a film for those of us who like a good scare, but don't want to be pummeled with relentless gore. Dark Water proves to be a pleasingly creepy night at the movies. 

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