Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		2.0

Dark Water Blu-ray Movie Review

Prepare for a massive order of depression with a side of dingy

Reviewed by Ben Williams September 10, 2007

When The Ring came along in 2002, I’m sure many people wouldn’t have predicted that it would inspire the American film industry to remake every Japanese horror flick under the sun. Yet, here we are in 2006 and they just keep getting made. The Ring itself was a fun and spooky ride. In my opinion, however, everything that has proceeded it, has been an obvious attempt to cash in on the phenomenon it created. Dark Water, on the other hand, has a slightly higher pedigree than most of these remakes. With a strong cast, high production values and the same author as The Ring itself, Dark Water showed promise in an otherwise lackluster genre.

Dahlia Williams (Jennifer Connelly) is having a pretty rough go of things. Her husband has left her for another woman, she’s unemployed and she’s desperately looking for an apartment where she can care for her young and precocious daughter, Cecelia (Ariel Gade). To make matters worse, about the only apartment she can afford is a relative dump on New York’s Roosevelt Island. Hey, at least the schools in the area are good. Once Dahlia and her daughter settle in, all sorts of disturbing events begin to transpire. Black water seems to constantly drip from the bedroom ceiling and the water faucets have a nasty habit of spewing disgusting substances at inopportune times. Is their new apartment haunted? Is the landlord trying to drive them crazy? Is her husband in on it all? Or is Dahlia just a nutcase?

Despite evidence to the contrary, the child in this photograph is not animatronic

Dark Water is a really sad movie. It’s not particularly scary, it isn’t particularly suspenseful and it certainly won’t be causing any nightmares. Those of you familiar with The Ring will certainly recognize many common plot points. This, in reality, is a film about abandonment and despair. Almost everything about Dark Water is unpleasant. Just about every room, building, person and thing in the movie is, on some level, disgusting. Other than Dahlia herself, I counted a grand total of 3 somewhat redeeming characters in the entire movie. There is an absolute TON of acting talent present in Dark Water: Jennifer Connelly, John C. Reilly, Tim Roth (almost totally unrecognizable) and Pete Postlethwaite. The acting is great across the board. Actually, it’s better than this film deserves. If the filmmakers had just tried to tell a simple story, I think we would have had a very interesting psychological drama. Instead, there is so much phony melodrama, forced tension and random paranoia inserted into this film that it just falls completely apart. Dark Water is clearly trying to mine material from the likes of The Shining and even a bit of Poltergeist. As is usually the case, those classics do the job much better than this cobbled together story. All we are left with is a very frustrating and ultimately unrewarding experience.

Dark Water Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

In an effort pump up the disgusting-factor in Dark Water, the entire movie has apparently been based around the color palette most well represented by dirt and mud. This movie is extremely dark. Many scenes are almost sepia-toned and devoid of vibrant colors. While this can be a very effective tool in setting the mood of a film like this, it really doesn't leave one with a "Check out how amazing my HD video is" type of transfer. With that being said, there were no apparent faults in this Blu-Ray transfer. The print is extremely clean and black levels are outstanding. Macroblocking, which can often be a huge problem in this type of dark photography, was a non-issue. Excessive film grain was never a problem and edge enhancement was also absent. Depth of field, shadow detail and delineation was excellent as well. While the transfer seems to be about as good as it could ever hope to be in a film this dark, it just doesn't leave you with a particular sense of awe. Then again, I don't think it's supposed to. In that respect, Dark Water succeeds wildly at recreating the theatrical experience.

Dark Water Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Dark Water features a lot of ambient sound effects and minimal use of the surround channels. More often than not, the surrounds are used to simply fill the rear of the soundstage with orchestral effects used to heighten tension. Dialogue is always crisp and perfectly intelligible. The PCM audio feature is clearly more refined than the Dolby Digital track. The soundstage is wider and the large amount of symphonic music in the film is nicely represented. Again, there's nothing wrong with the sound in this movie, per se… it just isn't very exciting and I felt that it really could have been in many places.

Dark Water Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Dark Water gives us a whopping two deleted scenes, an analysis of two shots from the film with commentary and quite possibly the worst "extra" I've ever seen: the "Movie Showcase". I'm not sure what they were trying to accomplish with this feature, but all it does when selected is give the viewer 3 scene options to choose from and then simply plays the scene directly from the movie. No commentary, no storyboards, no explanation! What is the point? The two deleted scenes are really just extensions of scenes from the final cut and add nothing to the plot or feel of the movie.

Dark Water Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

At the end of the day, I just can't recommend Dark Water. While the video is certainly exceptional, the story is just too convoluted and melodramatic. Fine acting and interesting photography will get you part of the way, but story is the key. Unfortunately, in this regard, Dark Water falls far too short.