Stars: Jennifer Connelly, John C. Reilly, Pete Postlethwaite, Tim Roth, Dougray Scott, Ariel Gade

Director: Walter Salles

Summary: Based on a story by Japanese novelist Koji Suzuki and a film by Hideo Nakata (THE RING), DARK WATER is a thrilling exercise in psychological terror. Jennifer Connelly stars as Dahlia, a troubled woman who is battling her husband, Kyle (Dougray Scott), for custody of their young daughter, Ceci (Ariel Gade). Low on cash, Dahlia moves with Ceci into a creepy apartment building on Roosevelt Island in New York City and soon discovers that something very wrong is going on one floor above them. As black water drips down ominously from the ceiling in her bedroom, Dahlia is unable to get help from the real estate agent in charge (the appropriately mysterious John C. Reilly) or his very strange employee (a grizzled Pete Postlethwaite). Around the time Ceci starts going to her new school, she also seems to have developed a very dangerous invisible friend with eerie ties to the apartment above. Believing that Kyle might be gaslighting her, Dahlia turns to a rather curious lawyer (Tim Roth) who appears to work out of his car. All the while, memories of her strained relationship with her mother begin flooding her mind and giving her debilitating migraines. Brazilian director Walter Salles's (THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES, CENTRAL STATION) first Hollywood film, DARK WATER cleverly paces itself before unleashing a terrifying conclusion.

WIN DVDs by rating this DVD

Average User Rating:

WIN DVDS by being amongst the first to review this DVD. Reviewing DVDs earns you bonus entries and lets you WIN DVDs!Please login before reviewing this DVD. If you're a new user, register for free and enter to WIN FREE DVDs!

Dark Wateris Japanese horror auteur Hideo Nakata's return to the genre after his Ringcycle made you too scared to watch television ever again. Where Ringdealt with a supernatural force wreaking revenge via technology, Dark Wateris a much more traditional ghost story. After winning a custody battle for her daughter, single mother Yoshimi moves into what she thinks is the perfect apartment with her daughter Hitomi. No sooner have they unpacked than strange things begin to disturb their new life. A water leak from the supposedly abandoned apartment above gets bigger and bigger, a child's satchel reappears even though Yoshimi throws it away several times, and she is haunted by the image of a child wearing a yellow mackintosh who bears a striking resemblance to a young girl who disappeared several years before.

The conventional narrative follows Yoshimi's increasingly desperate attempts to discover who or what force is haunting her daughter, but the story's execution is far from predictable. Nakata is the master of understated suspense: there's always a feeling of motiveless malignancy that runs like an undercurrent through his films--far more frightening than out and out shocks--and here he also practically drowns his audience in water imagery. The film is saturated; the relentless dripping in the apartment, the constant rain outside and the deliberately washed-out photography make any colour, such as the yellow coat, seem incongruous and unsettling. Nakata also clears the film of unnecessary characters--this is an almost deserted Tokyo--preferring to concentrate the action on Yoshimi's rising hysteria as she struggles to understand what is happening and how to save her daughter. Granted, the special effects are somewhat unconvincing and the ending confused, but even so the result is a stylish and disquieting chiller that will do for bathtubs what Ringdid for video recorders. --Kristen Bowditch

Aspect Ratio:	2.35 Wide Screen
Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Beneath The Surface The Making Of Dark Water, The Sound Of Terror, Extraordinary Ensemble, Deleted Scenes, Analysing Dark Water Sequences, Interactive Bathroom Scene, Audio Described
Subtitles:	Danish, English, Finnish, Icelandic, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish
Year:	2005
Release Date:	November 28, 2005
Runtime:	105 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	B U B 0009001
Keywords:	Dark, General, Water, Horror, Occult, Sci, Fi
Genre:	Horror/Occult