Dark Water, the first English language movie directed by Brazilian Walter Salles (Central Station, Motorcycle Diaries) is a very good movie. This is the type of intelligent non-slasher horror films that I enjoy. Its power is not in showing gore and roaring monsters but in the creating the atmosphere of unbearable tension and in making the very familiar everyday things and situations ominous, gloomy, and ready to hurt. Dark Water is also about very real and sympathetic characters, a young single mother and her little girl, and the bond and love between them. It is about real monsters of abuse, negligence, and criminal indifference that could and would affect a child's future life and lead to the tragic event at some point. I did not see the original Japanese movie of which Dark Water is a remake but I found this remake set in the creepiest apartment building on the Roosevelt Island, NY imaginable, a very underrated, good on its own merits and certainly worth watching drama/psychological thriller with the elements of supernatural thriller. Acting is first class. Jennifer Connelly in a truly heartbreaking performance as a recently divorced woman trying to move on together with her little daughter deserves a special mention and respect. John C. Reilly, Tim Roth, Pete Postlethwait, and Dougray Scott all made their characters interesting and memorable. It was nice to see Camryn Manheim in a small cameo. Two young girls also were very good. The camera work by Alfonso Beato, who more recently shot the award winning films "All About My Mother" (1999) "Ghost World" (2001), "The Queen" (2006), and “Love in the Time of Cholera” is amazing. The apartment where Dahlia and Cecil moved, had a strong and scary personality, and could be consider another very important film's character. If I add that the original music to the film was written by Angelo Badalamenti, the usual David Lynch's collaborator, you'd have a good idea of the surreal dark atmosphere of the film. I recommend it but do not expect a pure horror flick. Dark Water is deeper than that.
Review of Dark Water
