The classic "woman-trapped-in-a-haunted house" plotline gets a fresh update in Hideo Nakata's stellar Dark Water, a great example of the new wave of Japanese horror that followed in the wake of Nakata's previous Ring films. Adapted from a story by Ring author Koji Suzuki, the film focuses on the plight of Yoshimi Matsubara (Hitomi Kuroki), a recent divorcée locked in a nasty custody battle with her ex-husband over their precocious young daughter, Ikuko (Rio Kanno). To prove she can create a stable home environment for her daughter, Yoshimi finds a job and moves into a new apartment with Ikuko in tow. Aside from the building's lifeless, creepy atmosphere, the only problem with the place seems to be the persistent leak coming from the ceiling. But then things get weirder when a mysterious red bag starts showing up everywhere. And if that weren't strange enough, there seems to be a a mysterious child in a raincoat lurking around every corner. Just what is going on? Is Yoshimi's ex-husband playing tricks on her or is the problem a supernatural one? As Yoshimi and Ikuko soon learn, their new home holds some dark secrets of its own.
One of the more interesting aspects of Dark Water is that it gives its main character a reason for putting herself in harm's way. Although any sensible person would simply move out of the apartment, Dark Water addresses that issue by placing Yoshimi in a situation which would make such a sensible decision impossible for her. As the audience soon discovers, Yoshimi had personal problems in her past that forced her to seek psychological counseling. Although the problem wasn't quite as severe as it sounds, her ex-husband twists these and other facts to paint Yoshimi as a hysteric incapable of raising Ikuko. Thus, Yoshimi is warned by a kindly attorney that if she suddenly changes homes and pulls Ikuko out of school or starts complaining about ghosts, she will immediately look like an unfit mother and lose Ikuko to her ex-husband. Thus, poor Yoshimi is trapped in a no-win situation. Not only does this fact give a valid reason for the plot to occur, but it creates a sense of hopelessness and desperation that only intensifies the horror elements of the movie.
And unlike predictable horror dreck turned out by Hollywood every so often, Dark Water succeeds in creating a palpable sense of dread that infuses the entire picture. Whereas the typical American horror film tends to use formulaic plotlines and clichéd scare tactics to frighten its viewers, Nakata's chiller feels fresh as it consistently draws the audience in closer, making us actually care about the protagonists, hoping they'll survive as we're all pulled into the dark, dank abyss together.
To its credit, Dark Water subverts a lot of conventional Western wisdom when it comes to horror films. Anyone who's seen enough scary movies knows that some ghosts are just lost souls who need to be told to "go towards the light" or are perhaps in dire need of a proper burial to put their spirit at ease. Simply put, if you satisfy the ghost's needs, then everything will be a-okay. You do a good deed, and problem solved, right? Wrong. That is definitely NOT the case in Dark Water, and the decision made in the climax may leave a few viewers puzzled. Some may find the closing dénouement a little hokey, but it goes a long way in explaining (though not exactly spelling out) why things unfolded the way they did.
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