Dark Water (2002)
Time: 1h 41mins
Director: Hideo Nakata
Quick Summary: A mother and her 6-year-old daughter move into a creepy apartment whose every surface is permeated by water.
This is pretty suspenseful, knowing where to place the camera and how long to hold a shot just enough to make the hair stand on end.
One of the film's themes is the terrible treatment of women in Japan, and how they have been painted as unreliable and hysterical. Yoshimi is being divorced from her husband, who hopes to gain full custody of their daughter, a kindergartner named Ikuko. The film dramatizes the strain that the strange events in the apartment take on Yoshimi’s mental health. When combined with the pressures of trying to care for Ikuko, as a single mother struggling to hold down her copy editing job, it results in honest, but nail-biting mistakes, such as when she shows up late to pick up her daughter at kindergarten only to find her gone. I really liked how much pressure was put on the mother since it really emphasised the pure terror factor not only in the scary supernatural creature but in a real-life aspect of emotional stress that some people could relate to.
Water is the key player here – it’s everywhere, in the constant rain, the ominous patch of damp mould that grows constantly on the ceiling and the leaking water tank on the roof. Yoshimi is not only metaphorically drowning in her own anxieties surrounding her fractious divorce, but literally, constantly dodging puddles, sheets of rain or that creepy damp patch and she’s eventually consumed by the water that has seeped into every part of her life.
If you have a poor attention span or if you like horror films with plenty of jump scares and gory deaths, this is more than likely not for you since it is incredibly slow-paced and not like most horror films. It is all about the atmosphere. Things start out normally enough with much of the early part of the film feeling more like a social realism drama than a horror film. There are early hints that something isn't right though; mostly involving water where it shouldn't be. The building adds to the creepiness as it is a fairly normal if rundown, apartment block rather than a really old building.
Hitomi Kuroki does a fine job as Yoshimi, she makes the character feel like a real mother trying to cope with a difficult situation rather than a typical 'horror heroine'. Young Rio Kanno also impresses as Ikuko; a real child rather than honestly a brat.
I did not like the conclusion. I was disappointed since I expected much more. I felt incredibly confused, and it kind of ruined it a little bit for me but that is more than likely just a personal preference.
7/10
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