Japanese director, Hideo Nakata, who is in the hall of fame for horror movies since the phenomenal success of the Ring, sends another chill with Dark Water, a contemporary story that grips the fears and pressures of modern society. For a person with average guts, do not expect to be visited by nightmares and hallucinations; this movie delivers a bittersweet tragedy, with suspense and gloom, enveloped by a cloud of sadness rather than horrific scare tactics.

A divorced mother, Yoshimi Matsubara (Hitomi Kuroki) seeks solace in the custody of her 5-year-old kindergarten daughter, Ikuko, and derives strength to pick herself up after a broken marriage. Amidst her fight with her ex-husband who attempts to get the child from her, the skeletons in her cupboard spill over to the divorce tribunal and her psychological disorder which haunted her from the past, becomes a weapon for her ex-husband to get the custody of Ikuko. At this point, we were probably lured into guess-timating that the oddity in her newly rented apartment, which looked dingy from all angles, was figments of her imagination.

The mother-and-child bond brings to story to an emotional high, with the motherly instinct to protect her child, shielding her against all dangers, lending a touching manifestation of the unconditional maternal love. With the built-up intensity of images of hauntings and the drab inevitability of having to settle for a cheap and rickety abode as Yoshimi is the sole breadwinner who was jobless at the time she was searching for lodging, there is a painful realization that better circumstances would have enabled Yoshimi and Ikuko to live away from the horrors of a leaking elevator and ceiling, which drip, then spew water of a murkish hue on rainy days. The apartment block dwells one spirit, physically dead but with a yearning loneliness to soothe away the pain of dejection and abandonment which it was subjected to when it was alive.

The "missing person" notice of a ghastly 5 year-old girl in a raincoat who has disappeared 2 years ago, flashed across Yoshimi's mind as she discovers Ikuko missing from school when she was late in fetching her home one day. The perils of being a single mother tug at the heartstrings of the audience as Yoshimi struggles to clinch a job, (disadvantaged by the fact that she had left the workforce since marriage), and ends up late in fetching Ikuko due to an interview.

Ikuko is vulnerable, and somewhat welcomes the supernatural without discrimination. The spirit could have been a friendly poltergeist, with a red sling bag that has a cartoon stick-on (one of those cutesy Japanese motifs), however, the turn of events unfold the viciousness of the spirit. Delving deeper into the issues, there is a detectable social comment on how desires if manifested selfishly by one, are hurtful and irreparable to another.

Dark water has the ingredients of a suspenseful thriller due to its cleverly crafted plot that reveals a little at a time, emphasizing on minute details, and spinning these disparate threads into a coherent whole and this is no mean feat for horror movies, which more often than not, fail to make sense. I really would love to divulge more, but it is not opportune for a film review of horror movies to be a tell-all, especially when it is still showing in the theatres. All that I would say is that the movie is worthwhile watching, with its cinematography, convincing cast and plot. In retrospect, the last few Japanese "Horror" films I have watched (the Audition, Kakashi) pale against Dark Water, and Dark water is a notable achievement of its genre where the mastery of horror is subtle yet intriguing.