Walter Sallesis a filmmaker who doesn’t come around that often — literally. Part ofthe euphoric response to his comeback withI’m Still Heregoes beyond its shattering poignancy or timely subject matter, but the fact thatit had been 12 years since he last made a feature film. It’s good to know his touch has only gotten more refined with age, though it needs to be said he has always had a splendid handle on elevating material past its generic origins. This is howhe made one ofthe few good English-language remakes of a Japanese horror hitwithDark Water, a film that packs more heart than its incredibly soggy exterior would lead you to believe.
What is ‘Dark Water’ About?
Dahlia (Jennifer Connelly) is on the rebound after a bad divorce from her ex-husband, Kyle (Dougray Scott), and looking for a new place to live with her daughter, Cecilia (Ariel Gade). Needing a place on the cheaper side,she finds an apartment on Roosevelt Island in New York City, and it’s somewhat of a fixer-upper. It’s not the worst apartment, although it does look like the kind of spacethe Narrator fromFight Clubwould have an existential crisis in. It doesn’t help that it needs a new paint job, it has windows fit for a sanitarium, not to mentionall that black water dripping from the corner of the ceiling constantly.
The troubles don’t stop there, as she must single-handedly deal with her daughter’s increasing attachment to an “imaginary friend,” a shady superintendent (Pete Postlethwaite), who is annoyed at having to fix the leakage, and a manager (John C. Reilly), who seems completely oblivious to how bad the living situation is, eager to sweep any problems under the rug. If any of this is starting to sound like a haunted house film, that’s because it essentially is —one that gets by on the strength of Salles' instinct for atmosphere and attention to human behavior.
‘Dark Water’ Succeeds More For Its Atmosphere Than Its Scares
WhenDark Waterwas first released in theaters, critics largely shrugged it off, accusing it of being stale and predictable in its construction as a “horror” film. That’s not an unfair criticism, as ironically,the film is at its weakest when trying to beovertly “scary.“Most of its attempts at jump scares are fairly limp or feel thrown in and poorly built up. For instance, the building seems to be entirely devoid of inhabitants besides Dahlia and Cecilia, until some teenage hooligans show up for one scene where they mildly harass Dahlia in a laundromat and are never mentioned again. The film feels like it’s stuck between the hushed paranoia ofRosemary’s Babyand the hectic tomfoolery ofPoltergeist, generally faring better when it stretches things out with the creeping paranoia.
The spooks that the film does manage derive more from how much Salles personalizes the apartment complex, as it feels fully lived in and bursting with the potential for something spooky around every corner. With the constant sound of hard rain and leakage dripping, plus the cramped hallways and sallow lighting, it could make foran idealSilent Hillenvironment, had the walls and furniture been even more decrepit and destitute. But it’s really the people in the building that make the film so effective, not just where they’re stuck.
The Queasy Human Relationships Make ‘Dark Water’ Work
Dark Waterstrikes a nerve when it hones in on the uncertain dynamics among its primary characters, withSalles putting a lot of thought into how the visuals tell you about each person. Outside of Dahlia and Kyle, none of the adults are shown as competent or worthy of being fully trusted with anything. For instance, we know to suspect the superintendent because he stores huge gallons of clean water in his office, hinting that he knows something about the water no one else does. We know not to believe the manager’s authority because his wardrobe and office are sloppy and shabbily thrown together.
We know to be wary of Dahlia’s lawyer (Tim Roth) because he juggles being a lawyer with driving a taxi cab, indicating that he probably won’t do his job very well. On paper, these are standard clichés ofa mid-2000s horror film, with the world working against the protagonist. ButSalles' direction taps into the danger of being left in the care of the neglectful people that make up an uncaring society. That means that even if this studio remake is an outlier in his filmography from a production perspective, it fits in with his oeuvre as one long study in the constant struggle for humanity to overcome its tendency to ignore that which it doesn’t want to acknowledge.
In this case, the titular dark water was more than a fun visual to play with, buta metaphor for our souls slowly drowning under the weight of the injustice we choose not to confront. No matter how much it continues to pile up and be temporarily fixed, the water, much like the things we dare not say to other people out of shame or cowardice, won’t stop until we face them head-on. But Dahlia has to learn the hard way that when you live in a world that’s full of people more willing to look the other way out of personal motivation or genuine ignorance, that’s a seemingly impossible task.
Dark Water
