rooee After Ringu and its sequel in the late 1990s, prolific J-horror grandmaster Hideo Nakata returned to familiar ground in 2002 with this intimate and very scary family drama/ghost story/murder mystery hybrid. Like Ringu, it was remade (reasonably well) in Hollywood – an indication of the central story's universal appeal.While awaiting custody proceedings over her daughter, Ikuko (Rio Kanno), Yoshimi (Hitomi Kuroki) recalls being left at kindergarten while her own parents argued about who should pick her up. These memories inform the whole premise and tenor of the film: Yoshimi is terrified of losing her daughter. So she convinces the divorce panel that she is looking for work and a new home for her and Ikuko. Mother and daughter move into a cheap, brutalist tenement. It's basic but serviceable. Yoshimi gets a job and soon the pair have achieved some kind of normality. But something's not quite right. There's a damp patch on the ceiling and it's gradually growing. And who is that strange little girl wearing the yellow mac? As Yoshimi seeks the truth – all the while protecting her daughter and triggering her own deep-seated fears – she will uncover the tragedy of a missing child that will haunt her on an existential level. As with Ringu, Nakata shows his mastery of the slow horror form, and is in complete control. The frame is drained of bright colour and tinged with blue and grey, almost as if we're underwater. Forget about cheap jump shocks – Nakata is all about presence, subtly introducing us to the layout of the apartment block before planting its corners with half-glimpsed human forms and shadows. Meanwhile, the subtle, eerily ambient score textures the images rather than crashing the cuts. The two main performances are excellent, portraying an entirely believable bond between mother and daughter. Kuroki's performance may aggravate at first – Yoshimi is all nodding subservience and hysterical nerves – but gradually we empathise. As the clouds clear on the mystery of the girl in the raincoat, so they do too on Yoshimi's really quite rational fear of abandonment. While you can see its influence on recent fare like The Babadook, which similarly focused as much on the mother-child dynamic as the scares, Dark Water also owes itself to films that came before. The image of the possibly supernatural, raincoated child, for example, clearly harks back to Don't Look Now; and we even get a final act shock that matches Nicolas Roeg's classic for sheer, lurching terror.Dark Water is deep and foreboding; a bass thrum of a horror which keeps its creepy cards close to its chest. It is intricate and heartfelt and provides pictures that linger. It is also, crucially, an effective and moving love story about family bonds, which is key to grasping the real horror here: the horror of loss.

Ern Williams I went into this movie expecting something great, and extremely creepy and traumatizing scary. Instead I just got a bunch of half scare scenes that made me say "WTF is that it" I was expecting the scares to be really disturbing and make me jump out of my skin. But instead I was sitting there expecting more to happen but nothing happened. The one thing about this film I do enjoy though, is the plot. I felt the plot was well done and the purpose of the ghost mysteriously appearing out of no where was relevant. I see this film gets a lot of great positive reviews and praise from other people which is fine since that's their opinion. I never seen the American version so I don't plan on comparing the two. I just felt that this film lacked the scares and haunting images you would see in other J-Horror movies like Ringu and Ju-On. Like I said I'll give this film props for the plot, but I'm disappointed in terms of the horror provided in this film.

Tokyo-1997 This movie is entertaining in numerous ways and has many nice scare. I do not find this movie slow pacing at all. I thought it was very well paced. The ending of this movie was very touching and well made. The storyline was decent but there were some plot holes. This movie, unlike ringu, contains both touching and creepy scenes. This movie has much more scares than ringu, cause ringu only has one scary scene. But the scary scene in ringu is much much more frightening than this movie. So overall, ringu was scarier and much more entertaining. The storyline of ringu was better than this. However, although ringu was much more entertaining than this movie dark water, dark water has got very good development of the characters. This movie deals very well with themes such as "Family", "Love", "Mother Daughter Relationship". The ending for this movie was an extremely sad one. There should be more character development for the ghost. Other than that, this is a wonderful movie that deserves to be watched definitely. Score:8.7/10

cameron-kills-it "Dark Water" is the story of a young woman who is in the middle of a bitter custody battle with her ex-husband, who moves into a creepy apartment with her daughter. Soon, water comes leaking from the floor above, and a mysterious red bag appears although no other children live in the apartment complex. What follows is one of the most beautiful horror films I have ever seen. Wow, this is a true gem that you don't see in America, a movie that makes you feel sympathetic for the ghost and afraid of it simultaneously. A great script and eerie atmosphere create the perfect horror film. I have no interest whatsoever in seeing the American remake because I know that it will ruin it for me. Also, the little-kid ghost is just simply terrifying. See it.Rated: PG-13 for Disturbing Images.Grade: B+