Apparently imaginary friends are very popular in horror movies. In “Dark water”, a hollywood remake of a japanese horror flick, we follow the path of a divorced mother with a child as they struggle to find a decent place to live. They need the apartment and they need it cheap, otherwise the court will take her daughter away and she`ll be left alone.
The place they find is on the “other side” of the river and looks like an unnecessary import product from Russia. Think big, ugly…and leaky. The super looks like a serial killer who is hidding from the hand of justice, the agent is a sleaze-ball and the lawyer who is handling her divorce is a chronical liar. Who are you going to trust?
The scenery is bleak and run-down, there`s always rain or a chance of rain and the whole thing seems hopeless from the start. Especially when the mother is convinced that all of the imaginary friend doings are really orchestrated by her husband and some brats, trying to make her look insane.
Her daughter finds herself an “imaginary” friend. She is a girl who was left alone by her family and lived above the apartment, currently occupied by our two heroines. Through-out the movie, this “imaginary” friend is following the kid and her mother around and just wants to be loved. Even if the imaginary friend kills people in the process. Tough love, I guess.
The story, although improbable, is still a lot better than in Amityville horror. The suspense-effect is well placed and the thriller-side is a great addition to the pipes that leak blood and kids who “just want a mommie”. Plus there`s a neat twist and a happy end.
Jennifer Connely, a girlfriend-turned-whore from “Requiem for a dream” is excellent in the role of an ill mother who is just trying to keep a family together. Pete Postlethwaite is an authority figure and is very convincing in a role of the experienced janitor. And John C. Rilley is the perfect scum real estate agent. Those three are the engine behind this horror-thriller that plays on the mind card and adds a touch of blood for the effect.
What more could you want?
It just doesn’t have the class that the original in japanese has. They always look so simple, with an attitude that they don’t want to scare the people, but at the end they do, a lot and therefore I find them more believable. The hollywood versions always mess it up with the effects, they are trying too much. IMHO.
I always found the japanese horror too artistic for my taste. Faces look all the same (I know, racism, but here we are) and I don`t get the energy of the language. And there isn`t any recognizable names/faces (at least for me) and so the whole thing kind of falls through for me. And as for special effects I agree. Maybe I like “dark water” so much exactly cause there isn`t filled with special effect in terms of excess gore and blood.