Video Americain

Review

The most successful “J-horror” director, Hideo Nakata, working once again from a novel by the author of Ringu, Koji Suzuki, mines a new vein of terror. also involves the restless ghost of a girl in a watery grave. But this story doesn’t rely so much on a hook like a supernatural virus carried on a cursed videotape. Here, Suzuki and Nakata plumb to much darker depths. Many directors use water symbolism in their work. But Nakata’s film brings that symbolism to center stage. Seemingly, water doesn’t just signal supernatural events – it is the supernatural events. The stain on the ceiling doesn’t just speak of turmoil up above, it’s a part of it, spying down on our heroine from above and spilling down to soak her and her daughter. For once, hellish nightmares don’t boil up from below, but rain down from above or come rushing out of our once trusty faucets. The story’s supernatural chills and symbols are intensified by the psychological texture of the piece, which are strong enough to have tempted Hitchcock. Dark Water may not have the hair-raising shudders of Ringu, but it has virtues of its own, and may seep into your subconscious to cause a few nightmares.

 -- Brian Thomas