Tagline: Dark water conceals darker secrets.
Nothing is more terrifying than to realize your home, your family, your neighborhood, the very walls and ceilings that surround you have turned against you. When there is no safety to be found in what is supposed to be the very safest of places, the deepest form of psychological fear abounds.
This theme has wended its way through some of the most unsettling and sophisticated horror-thrillers in movie history. From the kindly-seeming next-door neighbors secretly practicing satanic rituals in “Rosemary’s Baby” to the idyllic retreat which dissolves into family madness in “The Shining” to the lonely little boy who finds apparitions of the dead in urban hallways in “The Sixth Sense”-the idea of “home sweet home” becoming unbearably haunted has long fired the artistic imagination.
Now, Dark Water continues in this classic tradition of smart, stylish, emotionally charged and thought-provoking terror driven by the complex performances of a highly accomplished cast of actors. Based on a story by the author of the horror classic “The Ring,” Dark Water approaches modern domestic anxiety from an original angle: that of a devoted mother who will go to unimaginable lengths to protect her daughter from an apartment that threatens to literally unleash a torrent of fury.
Dark Water is a 2005 American horror drama film directed by Walter Salles, starring Jennifer Connelly and Tim Roth. The film is a remake of the 2002 Japanese film of the same name, which is in turn based on the short story “Floating Water” by Koji Suzuki, who also wrote the Ring trilogy. The film also stars John C. Reilly, Pete Postlethwaite, Perla Haney-Jardine, Dougray Scott and Ariel Gade.
Reviews of the film are mixed. It currently holds a 46% “Rotten” rating at Rotten Tomatoes. William Thomas wrote in Empire the film as “Interesting and unsettling, but never terrifying. Best viewed as a family drama-come-Tale Of The Unexpected rather than a full-on horror”. The film grossed $25 million across the United States and Canada and $24 million from other territories for a total of $49 million, against a $30 million budget.
Dark Water (2005)
Directed by: Walter Salles
Starring: Jennifer Connelly, John C. Reilly, Tim Roth, Dougray Scott, Pete Postlethwaite, Camryn Manheim, Ariel Gade, Perla Haney-Jardine, Debra Monk, Linda Emond
Screenplay by: Rafael Yglesias
Production Design by: Thérèse DePrez
Cinematography by: Affonso Beato
Film Editing by: Daniel Rezende
Costume Design by: Michael Wilkinson
Set Decoration by: Nick Evans, Clive Thomasson
Art Direction by: Nicholas Lundy, Andrew M. Stearn
Music by: Angelo Badalamenti
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for mature thematic material, frightening sequences, disturbing images and brief language.
Distributed by: Buena Vista Pictures
Release Date: July 8, 2005
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