Dark Water 4K Ultra HD

Japanese horror (or J-Horror for short) came along just in the nick of time.  By 2002, franchise icons like Jason Vorhees and Michael Myers were barely pulling in an audience and one-shot stabs in the dark like Ghost Ship and Feardotcomwere uninspired attempts at creating stand-alone scares.  Meanwhile, in the land of the rising sun, the horror genre was giving birth to new generation of angry spirits that harkened back to a less gratuitous - but no less grotesque - menagerie of monsters. 

Director Hideo Nakata launched the J-Horror craze with 1998's Ringu, remade as The Ring in 2002 by Gore Verbinski. By that time, Nakata had already made a sequel himself and was pushing things in even more interesting directions with Dark Water, a psychological drama with a supernatural edge.  While the selling point here (and in the 2005 remake starring Jennifer Connelly) remained creepy ghost girls and an unrelenting sense of doom, the film's structure swings toward a more mature approach to the fantastic material.

 

Recently divorced and emotionally unbalanced, single-mom Yoshimi is locked in a nasty custody battle for her 6-year-old daughter, Ikuko.  And their recent move to a run-down apartment block isn't helping things.  A persistent leak in the ceiling leaves an ugly stain and young Ikuko seems obsessed with the empty apartment above them, from which they both hear unexplained footsteps.  

 

After a suffering a trauma at kindergarten, Yoshimi begins to suspect that her daughter is being "haunted" by the ghost of a missing child that lived in the building, a ghost that manifests itself in every drip, trickle and torrent of water.  But by the time Yoshimi discovers the truth, the fight to keep her daughter safe might require a sacrifice that will tear their family apart.

 

With J-horror so far in the rearview mirror now, Dark Water feels a bit too obvious to be considered innovative.  The vengeful ghost who can't rest until its corporeal body is given proper respect seems awfully predictable.  But that gimmick is almost an afterthought here as the focus narrows onto Yoshimi's fragile mental state.  It's a convincing and often cringingly emotional performance by actress Hitomi Kuroki, and one can see why Connelly, an Academy Award Winner, found the role appealing for the remake.  

 

That's not to say the Dark Water is without its share of spine-tingling moments.  After all, the J-Horror genre practically invented the corner-of-your-eye scare tactics that have now been embraced whole-heartedly by the likes of James Wan and his Insidious and Conjuring franchises.  Nakata masterfully uses the apartment block layout, employing security cameras and clunky elevators to capture the ghostly presence on film.  Only the epilogue, with a now grown Ikuko narrating her return to the scene of her childhood trauma, feels a bit on the nose.  Otherwise, Dark Water is a surprisingly adult horror story that finds just as much grief and longing in this world as the next.

 

Arrow Video's dual-format 4K Ultra HD upgrade is a big improvement over the previous Blu-ray.  The HDR is a perfect match for the genre’s deep shadows and grungy aesthetic.  It would be great to see more J-horror get the same treatment.  

The extras - interviews, Making Of  and sit-downs including director Hideo Nakata, novelist Koji Suzuki and cinematographer Junichiro Hayashi - are all a carryover material.  But the comments tell a pretty comprehensive tale of the J-Horror movement and their respective inspirations.  A trailer, TV spots and still gallery complete the package.