On the Big Board |
Position |
Staff |
In Brief |
135/166 |
David Mumpower |
Not scary, not interesting and not a good idea for a horror film. |
Based on a novel by Koji Suzuki, who also wrote the book The Ring, Dark Water is an Americanized remake of a Japanese film that was directed by the inimitable Hideo Nakata. For those unfamiliar with the name, Nakata was responsible for the Japanese films Ringu and Ringu 2 (the Japanese versions of The Ring), and is also handling the sequel to the North American version of The Ring.
Dark Water is being directed by the remarkable Brazilian director Walter Salles, who is perhaps best-known in North America for The Motorcycle Diaries, the story of Che Guevara's travels around South America.
In this version of Dark Water, a mother and her daughter have holed up in a rundown apartment to heal from the wounds of a bitter custody dispute. Although the apartment seems a decent enough place to make a new start, strange things quickly start happening. Stains appear on the ceiling and liquid begins to ooze into their rooms. The landlord refuses to correct the problem, and soon a child's red bag begins to appear in strange places. Mother and daughter realize that they are the target of a ghost of a young girl who once lived there.
Academy Award-winning actress Jennifer Connelly stars in the film, and has a strong supporting cast that includes John C. Reilly, Tim Roth, Dougray Scott and Shelley Duvall, herself a veteran of the upper scale horror genre thanks to Stanley Kubrick's The Shining. (Kim Hollis/BOP)
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