Dark Water Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		2.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.5
Overall		3.0

Dark Water Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 1, 2016

As the spooky Halloween season passes for another year, a lot of horror fans have been revisiting their favorite iconic characters, whether that be Frankenstein (and/or his monster), The Wolf Man, The Mummy, Dracula / Drácula [Version in Spanish], or more “modern” inventions like A Nightmare on Elm Street Collection’s Freddy Krueger or Friday the 13th: The Complete Collection’s Jason. Well, not to complicate matters, but there’s evidently a new type of character to fear, at least as evidenced by a description included on the back cover of Hideo Nakata’s Dark Water: the “dead wet girl.” Putting aside the perhaps unavoidably comic reaction some may have to just such a description, Nakata built at least part of his career on that very type, first with Ring and then with its follow up Ringu 2 (a sequel which Nakata then returned to to make his English language debut with The Ring Two). Dark Water revisits some of the ideas that were floating around The Ring (sorry, couldn’t resist), but in some ways it’s not really a “traditional” horror film, preferring to build angst out of psychological turmoil rather than hoarier gambits like jump cuts with attendant startle sound effects.

A young girl may or may not have been left abandoned at day care as the film opens, and she’s left gazing out of a window to an incredibly rainy outdoor environment as a teacher asks her who’s coming to pick her up. Already there’s a sense of melancholy in Dark Water in just the opening minute or two. A segue suggests that an older woman now looking out of another rainy window is the same little girl aged several years, and that turns out to be the case once her name is called to come into a meeting. She is Yoshimi Matsubara (Hitomi Kuroki), and it turns out she’s in some sort of official interview that’s almost like a deposition dealing with her impending divorce. Yoshimi is quiet, maybe a little neurotic, but it soon turns out she’s had a history of mental instability, at least if one believes accusations lobbed at her by her soon to be ex-husband. Yoshimi is terrified that her husband is going to try to finagle custody of their little daughter Ikuko (Rio Kanno) away from her, even if the attorneys reassure her that with children this young, the mother usually has “advantages” in the court system.

In order to give at least the semblance of stability to whomever will be making the custody decision, Yoshimi sets up home in a kind of dilapidated apartment, one with a rather bad water stain on the ceiling. It’s notable how much angst Nakata is able to wring (no pun intended) out of something so ostensibly mundane, but the image of the slowly growing scar across the apartment ceiling obviously portends other horrors, though it’s also notable that Dark Water doesn’t really indulge in traditional horror conceits like blood and guts, and instead builds its tension rather slowly, suggesting subliminal levels of unease without ever really overtly depicting anything gruesome.

Along with the burgeoning water stain, other odd developments recur, including the appearance of a child’s bag which Yoshimi keeps trying to get rid of, but which returns. Visions of another child haunting the halls of the apartment complex also crop up, and Yoshimi soon learns that there was another girl named Mitsuko Kawai (Mirei Oguchi) who used to live in the apartment above Yoshimi and Ikuko, but who vanished mysteriously some time ago. Without getting into the nuts and bolts of the plot dynamics, those familiar with Nakata’s previous “dead wet girl” entries can probably piece together enough of the puzzle to arrive at the general outlines of what ends up happening, if not the actual specifics.

While the horror aspects of Dark Water are undeniable, they’re also curiously tamped down at times. That doesn’t really detract from the visceral intensity of the film, especially once it becomes clear that the “message” isn’t necessarily about spectral entities reaching out to touch others, but instead about a Mother’s love and ultimate sacrifice for her child. In fact it’s the emotional tether between Yoshimi and Ikuko that gives Dark Water most of its energy, despite the splish splash of little (dead?) feet traipsing through abandoned apartment building hallways.

Dark Water Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Dark Water is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Arrow typically offers informative insert booklet language about their transfers, and it may raise some suspicions that they're a little circumspect about this release, offering only the following:

Dark Water is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 with 5.1 surround sound. The High Definition master was made available by Kadokawa Pictures. Additional restoration work was performed at Deluxe Restoration, London to remove dirt and debris and improve overall picture stability.

The fact that the above verbiage doesn't identify what source elements were used may be a clue that this is an older and inconsistent looking master culled from secondary sources. While parts of this presentation are at least acceptably detailed and decently warm looking (see screenshot 2), this tends to be the exception rather than the rule. A lot of the imagery is processed looking, with a brown, muddy ambience that is quite pronounced, and an overall softness that defeats detail levels, especially in midrange and wider shots. While there is a grain field on display, it's also processed looking at times and the smoothness of a lot of the presentation suggests high frequency filtering has been applied. I'm also wondering if this suffers from some of the same gamma anomalies that have afflicted some other Japanese releases, notably the botched release of The Twilight Samurai. Contrast seems awfully low a lot of the time, with brightness boosted, often with a slightly yellow tinge in attendance. Scanner noise also intrudes, not necessarily limited to darker scenes. I will say that, while obviously not optimal, this transfer in motion looks at least incrementally better than some of these screenshots might indicate, though that might be damning with faint praise.

Dark Water Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Fortunately, there are no similar problems with regard to Dark Water's nicely nuanced DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track. As might be expected, the ultimately haunting sounds of dripping water inform the surround channels at regular intervals throughout the film, but there's also some really foreboding sounding LFE utilized that perhaps subliminally suggests the feeling of being drowned. The evocative if spare score also wafts through the side and rear channels quite effectively. Dialogue is cleanly delivered and well prioritized on this problem free track.

Dark Water Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Hideo Nakata: Ghosts, Rings and Water (1080p; 26:03) is a nicely in depth 2016 interview with the director.


• Koji Suzuki: Family Terrors (1080p; 20:20) is a good interview with the celebrated horror author whose short story provided the basis for the film.


• Junichiro Hayashi: Visualizing Horror (1080p; 19:16) features the director of photography, who discusses this film and others he's done with Nakata.


• Making of Featurette (1080i; 15:50) is an archival EPK.


• Hitomi Kuroki Interview (1080i; 7:59) is another archival piece.


• Asami Mizukawa Interview (1080i; 4:38) is an archival interview with the actress playing the teenaged Ikuko.


• Shikao Suga Interview (1080i; 2:54) is a brief piece featuring the musician discussing the closing theme he wrote for the film.


• Promo Materials

  Trailer (1080p; 1:13)

  Teaser (1080p; 00:37)

  TV Spots (1080p; 00:50)

Dark Water Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Really less of a traditional horror film than might be expected (or even was marketed at the time), Dark Water instead tends to ply a more psychological route, one that examines the bonds between mother and child, especially bonds that are threatened both by "real world" traumas as well as supernatural elements. While the film is a "slow build" and therefore probably not to some typical horror fans' tastes, it ends up delivering a pretty potent emotional wallop. Arrow has done its typically fine job assembling great supplements, and the audio on this release is also excellent, but the video presentation has considerable room for improvement.