dark water horror movie review

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A mother going through a divorce moves into a run down apartment with her daughter. A persistent leak from above, visions of a missing girl, and other eerie phenomena become increasingly men... Read all A mother going through a divorce moves into a run down apartment with her daughter. A persistent leak from above, visions of a missing girl, and other eerie phenomena become increasingly menacing as clues to a past tragedy come to light. A mother going through a divorce moves into a run down apartment with her daughter. A persistent leak from above, visions of a missing girl, and other eerie phenomena become increasingly menacing as clues to a past tragedy come to light.

• Hideo Nakata
• Kôji Suzuki
• Takashige Ichise
• Hitomi Kuroki
• Mirei Oguchi
• 201 User reviews
• 125 Critic reviews
• 6 wins & 2 nominations

Top cast 53

• Yoshimi Matsubara
• Ikuko Matsubara (6 years old)
• Mitsuko Kawai
• Ikuko Hamada (16 years old)

• Kunio Hamada
• Ohta (real-estate agent)
• (as Yu Tokui)
• Kamiya (apartment manager)
• Kishida (Yoshimi's lawyer)
• Young Yoshimi's Teacher
• Young Yoshimi
• Old Lady (twin, elder)
• Old Lady (twin, younger)
• (as Tohur Shinagawa)

• (English version)
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

• Trivia Second film by Hideo Nakata to be based on a novel by Koji Suzuki. He previously directed Ring (1998) and its sequel Ring 2 (1999).
• Goofs (at around 1h 3 mins) When everyone is up on the roof examining the water tower, a flap of cloth or pant leg can be seen at the top of the ladder. This could be something attached to the tower, but later when she climbs it by herself and we see the whole thing, no such cloth is visible.

Ikuko Matsubara (6 years old) : She loves the bath. She's going to stay in it forever.

• Connections Featured in WatchMojo: Top 10 J Horror Films (2016)

User reviews 201

• Nov 8, 2004
• How long is Dark Water? Powered by Alexa
• January 19, 2002 (Japan)
• From the Depths of Dark Water
• Kadokawa Shoten Publishing Co.
• Nippon Television Network (NTV)
• Video Audio Project (VAP)
• See more company credits at IMDbPro

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 41 minutes
• Dolby Digital

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Review: nakata hideo’s dark water on arrow video 4k uhd blu-ray.

Nakata’s J-horror classic examines recurrent cycles of familial and institutional negligence.

In the midst of a difficult divorce, Matsubura Yoshimi (Kuroki Hitomi) is forced to move into rather dilapidated digs with her young daughter, Ikuko (Kanno Rio). During the course of a divorce-related interview, it’s revealed that Yoshimi spent some time in a mental facility before her marriage, owing to overwork as a proofreader of “brutal and sadistic” literature. This of course opens up the possibility that subsequent experiences of a supernatural kind may be attributable to her unstable personality, a hypothesis that several other scenes seem to bear out. An elliptical epilogue fails to settle definitively whether or not the film’s events are merely psychological.

In Ring , the central image is a well that serves as metaphor for all things repressed and seemingly banished, whereas this film focuses on the slowly spreading taint of water stains and other damage. Dark Water ’s abiding water imagery begins moodily enough with a seemingly endless downpour that continues over the course of the film’s first half. It then manifests as a small, faint stain on the ceiling above Yoshimi’s bed. From there it multiplies into an overflowing bathtub, a flooded derelict apartment, and (most hauntingly of all) a rooftop water tank. Bodies of water of any depth often serve as a symbol of the unconscious—those primal, inchoate forces at work just below the surface of our waking minds.

The unattended tap, the agape lid of the cistern, these are all the direct result of disregard. The foreboding sense of desertion that practically defines Dark Waters carries over to the character’s interactions. When Yoshimi fails to retrieve Ikuko from her kindergarten, it triggers a memory of her own mother’s negligence in picking her up from school. What’s more, the very facilities where Yoshimi and Ikuko reside are characterized by systemic inattentiveness, personified by Kamiya (Yatsu Isao), the building’s oblivious superintendent. By the film’s epilogue, set 10 years later, the high rise has advanced into a state of outright abandonment.

This pernicious failure to watch over properties as well as persons ties directly into the fate of the little girl, Mitsuko (Oguchi Mirei), whose missing poster catches Yoshimi’s eye and whose fate she uncovers. Mitsuko is the film’s fleetingly glimpsed revenant but, unlike Sadako in Ring , her motives for remaining where she’s been left behind don’t center on revenge. They focus instead on the desire to belong to someone . The film’s final images suggest that, against all hope and effort, we’re entirely on our own. It’s a delicately delivered yet utterly dispiriting ending.

Image/Sound

The transfer of Dark Water on this 4K UHD Arrow Video release, sourced from a 2023 digital restoration, marks a definite improvement over the studio’s 2016 Blu-ray edition. For one thing, despite the fact that both discs are presented in the original 1.85:1 aspect ratio, there’s more information available on all four edges of the frame of the new UHD. Though the film’s color palette is quite muted, dominated by creams, browns, and sepias, they’re fuller and more robust than those on the earlier transfer. Contrast is darker, and black levels are more profound. The audio is an active Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround that modulates from quite rainfall to abruptly loud, almost jump scare-level gotchas. The score from Kawai Kenji and Suga Shikao is terrifically atmospheric and at times truly dread-inducing.

Arrow carries over the slate of extras from their earlier Blu-ray, consisting of three interviews from 2016 with director Nakata Hideo, author Suzuki Koji, and DP Hayashi Junichiro, shorter archival interviews with actors Kuroki Hitomi and Mizukawa Asami and composer Suga Shikao, and an interesting, if short, making-of documentary. Nakata talks about his early career, taking inspiration from the work of Josey Losey, and his general dislike of horror movies despite his frequent work in the genre. Suzuki discusses the inspiration for his first novel, Ring , how all good horror stories contain some element of water and a confined space, and the place of consistent logic in narrative construction. Hayashi relates working his way up as a DP, wanting at one time to make the leap to director, and how the role of the DP differs in Japan.

Suffused with a haunting mood of melancholy, Nakata Hideo’s J-horror classic Dark Water examines recurrent cycles of familial and institutional negligence.

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Dark Water Review

Another disappointing american remake of a foreign-language hit..

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Common Sense Media Review

By Cynthia Fuchs , based on child development research. How do we rate?

This scary movie is too creepy for little kids.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that the film features frightening scenes in which a young mother and her six-year-old daughter are haunted by a seeming ghost. The mother is also disturbed by flashbacks to a troubled past (her alcoholic mother tells her she "hates" her) and a custody battle with her estranged husband…

Why Age 16+?

An alcoholic mother appears in unnerving flashbacks; a character takes pills for

Some strong language.

Implied violence (including drowning), and some scary, tense scenes.

Any Positive Content?

Parents argue, mother leaves her child at school.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

An alcoholic mother appears in unnerving flashbacks; a character takes pills for migraine headaches.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Violence & Scariness

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Messages

Parents need to know that the film features frightening scenes in which a young mother and her six-year-old daughter are haunted by a seeming ghost. The mother is also disturbed by flashbacks to a troubled past (her alcoholic mother tells her she "hates" her) and a custody battle with her estranged husband. The movie includes some language, tense family scenes, and jump scenes. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Parent and kid reviews.

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• Kids say (4)

There aren't any parent reviews yet. Be the first to review this title.

What's the Story?

Dahlia's had a troubled childhood and is going through a custody battle over her daughter, Cecilia. When she and Ceci (Ariel Gade) move into a new apartment, Dahlia starts to notice strange things that she connects with previous tenants of the apartment above hers. While she fights her ex, Kyle (Dougray Scott), for custody, she also must deal with the supernatural – the ghost of a little girl abandoned by her parents.

Is It Any Good?

Pushing the edge of PG-13 with regard to scary scenes and family tensions, DARK WATER's greatest strength is Jennifer Connelly. As Dahlia, a young mother in the midst of divorce, Connelly delivers a delicate, moving, and utterly convincing performance. A remake of director Hideo Nakata and writer Kôji Suzuki's 2002 film (they also made Ringu , source for The Ring ), Walter Salles' movie creates a world that is rainy, spooky, and grim.

Dahlia's fear of being a bad mother like her own drives her to take repeated horror-movie style risks (walking into empty rooms, exploring the building's roof at night). Dahlia's experiences -- past and present, inside and outside, night and day -- begin to blur, as she's either believing or fulfilling Kyle's judgment that she's "wacko." She turns to a lawyer, Platzer (Tim Roth), who appears alternately quirky and reassuring. On one level, this seems funny (or ironic), that the lawyer is so unable to bring order to her nightmare; on the other hand, his inability to help suggests that Dahlia is abandoned, much as she has feared since she was a child. Horror movies frequently use the figure of the ineffective or bad mom (not to mention the murderous father; see the recent Hide and Seek ), and so Dahlia's selfless resolve seems almost bracing. But Dark Water never develops either her particular dilemmas or responses beyond generic conventions. By film's end, it seems, she's still waiting.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the tensions between mother and daughter, in part caused by the mother's past (indicated by nightmares and flashbacks). How does the daughter's "imaginary friend" worry her mother? How does the antagonism between mother and father exacerbate their daughter's fears of abandonment, loss, and retribution? How does the external world (specifically, the apartment) serve as metaphor for mother and daughter's internal states?

Movie Details

• In theaters : July 8, 2005
• On DVD or streaming : December 27, 2005
• Cast : Jennifer Connelly , Pete Postlethwaite , Tim Roth
• Director : Walter Salles
• Studio : Buena Vista
• Genre : Horror
• Run time : 105 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG-13
• MPAA explanation : mature thematic material, frightening sequences, disturbing images and brief language.
• Last updated : January 2, 2023

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• DVD & Streaming

Content Caution

In Theaters

• Jennifer Connelly as Dahlia; Ariel Gade as Ceci; John C. Reilly as Mr. Murray; Tim Roth as Jeff Platzer; Dougray Scott as Kyle; Pete Postlethwaite as Veeck; Camryn Manheim as a teacher

Home Release Date

• Walter Salles

Distributor

• Touchstone Pictures

Positive Elements   |   Spiritual Elements   |   Sexual & Romantic Content   |   Violent Content   |   Crude or Profane Language   |   Drug & Alcohol Content   |   Other Noteworthy Elements   | Conclusion

Movie Review

Dahlia is a good mother. Despite the fact that her husband, Kyle, has cheated on her and filed for divorce, Dahlia is determined to provide for their young daughter, Ceci. But emotional instability due to marital separation and haunting memories of her own neglectful mother have made Dahlia’s grip on life tenuous at best.

The financial desperation imposed upon this functional single mother in New York City forces her off Manhattan in search of affordable housing. Enter Mr. Murray, an optimistic-to-a-fault apartment manager on Roosevelt Island determined to rent a gloomy, dungeon-like apartment to the mother and daughter. Ceci’s first—and accurate—assessment of the complex: “It’s yucky.” But the little girl has an abrupt change of heart after she finds an abandoned Hello Kitty backpack while her mom negotiates with Mr. Murray, and she convinces Dahlia that this sunlight-challenged ninth-story tenement really should become their next home.

Things begin to go awry shortly after Dahlia and Ceci move in. A leak in their ceiling fills a large kitchen pot—fast. Nightmares about her mother plague Dahlia’s sleep. A creepy janitor named Veeck seems dead-set against helping the pair with their problems. And a concerned teacher at school informs Dahlia that Ceci is more interested in playing with her imaginary friend than with real children.

Before long, mom and daughter are both hearing voices and catching fleeting glimpses of someone , even as the apartment’s water problems escalate far beyond what a mere leaky pipe—or even a broken one—could possibly produce. As her sanity stretches to the breaking point, Dahlia discovers a dark story that mirrors her own abusive childhood—a story about another abandoned little girl still looking for a mommy …

Positive Elements

The most compelling positive element in the film is Dahlia’s unwavering commitment as a parent. Though she struggles to provide for her daughter’s most basic needs, there’s clearly no shortage of love (“Do you know how much I love you? Do you know I would do anything for you? That’s a promise”). Ceci reciprocates that affection. As Dahlia braids her hair, Ceci says, “It’s perfect. You do it perfect.” Dahlia is a conscientious, concerned and involved mom who’s determined not to neglect her daughter as her own mother did. She’s also willing to do anything for her child’s well-being.

Likewise, Ceci’s teacher is bright and positive. She and the other educators definitely care about the children’s best interest.

Spiritual Elements

[ Spoiler Warning ] Ultimately, Dahlia discovers that the cause of the mysterious dark water that saturates her apartment is a young girl named Natasha who was abandoned by her parents and accidentally drowned in a water-storage tank on the apartment’s roof. Natasha’s spirit haunts the complex; her loneliness drives her to connect with Ceci as a friend and Dahlia as a mom. But when Ceci and Dahlia fail to cooperate as Natasha wishes, the spirit grows vengeful and manipulative.

Thus, Dark Water promotes the belief that the dead have supernatural power in this world (dark water always gurgles up when Natasha is angry) and that they can affect and communicate with people who are still alive. In addition to her command of water, Natasha also has power over the apartment’s elevator, which she uses to bring people to the abandoned top floor of the building. Like many films in this genre, Natasha is in bondage and demands appeasement from those she’s “haunting.”

Dahlia’s final confrontation with Natasha comes when the evil ghost tries to drown Ceci. Apparently, the only way Dahlia can save her daughter is to surrender her own life to Natasha instead. Why? Because the spirit of the little girl wants some company, someone (apparently) to be with her forever. Dahlia willingly and admirably makes that sacrifice so her daughter can live. Two of the final scenes show Dahlia reading a book to Natasha, then reassuring her now motherless daughter, Ceci, that she will always be there when Ceci calls out for her.

Sexual & Romantic Content

Dahlia knocks on the apartment superintendent’s door and hears the sounds of a moaning woman, followed by a zipper being zipped. When Dahlia is on her way to do laundry, she encounters two teens in the hallway, one of whom suggestively tells her, “I’ve got some dirty things I’d like you to clean.” When she sees them again, one says he would like to “nab” her. Dahlia’s outfits sometimes reveal a bit of cleavage.

Violent Content

While Ceci is painting at school, Natasha takes control of her arm, forcing her to scribble frantically in circles. Though Ceci yells for her to stop, Natasha doesn’t relent until Ceci’s teacher intervenes. Aside from the spooky tone that follows the creeping water, Dark Water also sports a handful of shock scenes that, while not violent, could easily scare.

[ Spoiler Warning ] When Dahlia follows Natasha’s spirit to the roof, she peeks into a water tank and finds the child’s body floating in the darkness. A flashback scene recounts Natasha tumbling into the tank. An angry Natasha holds Ceci underwater in the bathtub as Dahlia begs her to stop. When Dahlia promises to act as Natasha’s mother “forever,” a torrent of water drowns her, and we see a close-up of Dahlia’s face as she lies dead, eyes open, on the floor.

Crude or Profane Language

At least one f-word is used, along with three s-words and a variety of other milder language (“a–,” “a–hole,” “p—,” “d–n,” “b–ch,” “h—“). God’s name and Jesus’ name are misused about half-a-dozen times, including a single “g–d–n.”

Drug & Alcohol Content

Dahlia takes prescription pills for her brutal migraines that also put her to sleep. On one occasion, she’s knocked out for a full day. Veeck says some hooligan teens have been using “wacky backy,” implying marijuana. Dahlia offers the caretaker a beer, which he turns down. It’s implied that Dahlia’s abusive mother’s problems included alcoholism. Kyle smokes twice; when Ceci asks him to stop smoking, Dahlia says he can smoke as much as he wants—indicating she wishes he were dead. A teenage character smokes and returns to the laundry room to retrieve a pack of forgotten “smokes.”

Other Noteworthy Elements

Mr. Murray is an avid gambler who frequents an off-track betting establishment. Kyle walked out on his family, apparently after initiating an affair with another woman. Dahlia has flashbacks and dreams of her mother, who is shown vomiting in a toilet and screaming at a young Dahlia (even calling her a “little b–ch”).

The tension in haunted house movies comes largely from the fact that we know—in broad strokes—what’s coming. Even as Ceci convinces her skeptical mom to rent a dark, dingy apartment, we’re internally screaming, “Don’t do it!” We don’t know, exactly, what’s going to happen, but we know whatever is causing such mysteriously massive leaks of brackish water can’t be good. And it’s not, of course.

As well as any movie in this genre can, Dark Water succeeds in drawing two emotionally compelling characters in Dahlia and Ceci. It’s not hard to connect with a compassionate mother who cares so deeply about her daughter. And Dahlia’s sacrifice for her daughter offers a strong redemptive message that’s definitely lacking in the movie that most closely resembles this one, The Ring (which also features water, drowning, parental abuse and a beautiful single mother with a precocious child).

But that message is completely overshadowed by the spiritual worldview that drenches Dark Water : The dead can communicate with us, manipulate us and exercise fantastic supernatural powers to get us to do their will. Ultimately, it’s only Dahlia’s submission to an angry little spirit girl’s wishes that brings resolution. Instead of freeing a tormented specter from bondage, Dahlia joins her in that place—the latest cinematic example of the ghosts “winning” in the end (see The Grudge and Darkness ). Apparently, we’re supposed to feel good about the fact that Dahlia has one last chance to say goodbye to her daughter and tell her everything’s going to be OK. It isn’t.

In the end, the spiritual perspective of Dark Water majors on communicating with the dead while wholly excluding any mention (except profane ones) of a God who’s greater than life and death.

Adam R. Holz

After serving as an associate editor at NavPress’ Discipleship Journal and consulting editor for Current Thoughts and Trends, Adam now oversees the editing and publishing of Plugged In’s reviews as the site’s director. He and his wife, Jennifer, have three children. In their free time, the Holzes enjoy playing games, a variety of musical instruments, swimming and … watching movies.

Jamie Maxfield

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Dark Water Review

22 Jul 2002

101 minutes

While still working his icy chills in his homeland of Japan — he’s now installed in Hollywood remaking his own work — Hideo Nakata directed a series of effective, idiosyncratic ghostly tales that positioned the horror genre away from the glare of schlock. His notion of fear is a slow creep, a stain on the ceiling, the blur of a video image, the insidious tremor caused by a momentary image of a small Japanese child with lank hair and dead eyes. In this style, his most famous films, Ring and Ring 2, might as well have been squealing up Elm Street way compared to the subtle strains of this ghost story that uses reticence, a flat refusal to fully expose its evil schemes, to invoke a very redolent fear.

Thus you have one of the slowest, and often most infuriating, horror movies ever made. Dark Water, as its names suggests, works most of its dread through the expanding image of an iron-brown water stain, and the unending drip-dripping of its torment. The ethereal backstory here tells of a missing girl (a staple of Japanese horror) in ghost form haunting the scene of her downfall in search of a new mother, and Yoshimi, with her own child, fits the bill. In the meantime she’ll ‘make friends’ with little Ikuko.

Nakata, however, keeps the supernatural shards of his story at one remove, allowing them to glimmer sullenly in the background — repeated glimpses of this spooky kid — building a small soap opera in the foreground. We learn Yoshimi (played with dancing nerves by Hitomi Kuroki) has escaped from a brutal marriage, leaving her frayed and open to suggestion; one being that her paranoia over this strange vision of a girl is being manipulated by her ex-husband aiming to regain custody of their daughter. The film, at this stage, never fully commits to the outright alien, allowing Nakata to insinuate it could all in her head, the mucky glower of that stain representing the state of her mind.

Things do tip finally in the direction of genuine weirdness, if not toward an ending that will wholly explains itself, but the impression lasts, proving that oft-regaled saw in horror parts that less is so often more. Especially when it comes to the itchy terror of pre-pubescent Japanese children.

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Movies | 28 08 2016

• Blu-ray/DVD edition reviewed by Chris Galloway
• October 27 2016

See more details, packaging, or compare

After terrifying audiences worldwide with the blockbuster J-horror classic Ring and its sequel, director Hideo Nakata returned to the genre for Dark Water, another highly atmospheric, and critically acclaimed, tale of the supernatural which took the common theme of the "dead wet girl" to new heights of suspense and drama. Based upon on a short story by Ring author Koji Suzuki, Dark Water follows Yoshimi, a single mother struggling to win sole custody of her only child, Ikuko. When they move into a new home within a dilapidated and long-forgotten apartment complex, Yoshimi begins to experience startling visions and unexplainable sounds, calling her mental well-being into question, and endangering not only her custody of Ikuko, but perhaps their lives as well. Beautifully shot by the same cinematographer as Ring and Pulse, and featuring an especially unnerving sound design, Dark Water successfully merges spine-tingling tension with a family's heart-wrenching emotional struggle, creating one of the very finest and most unsettling contemporary Japanese horror films.

Picture 5/10

Extras 7/10

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Dark Waters

“Dark Waters,” starring Mark Ruffalo as an attorney trying to punish the DuPont chemical corporation for dumping toxic waste in West Virginia, is a lone-crusader-against-the-corrupt-system film, in the tradition of “ The Insider ,” “ A Civil Action ,” and “ The Verdict .” Director  Todd Haynes (“ Carol ,” “Mildred Pierce”) embraces that lineage, giving viewers the sense of what a long, tedious, spiritually draining process this can be, and letting even the best-looking, most charismatic actors in the ensemble appear onscreen looking as if they inhabit the same reality as the rest of us and are exhausted by it. 

Ruffalo stars as Robert Billott, a Cincinnati, Ohio attorney for Taft Stettinius & Hollister, a firm that represents major corporations, including DuPont, one of the world’s most powerful chemical manufacturers. Through personal ties, and against the wishes of his own colleagues, Billott decides to help a lowly cattle farmer from Parkersburg, West Virginia named Wilbur Tennant (played by Bill Camp , with beetle brows that make him look like Beau Bridges from a distance). Wilbur’s cows have been getting sick, going insane, and dying off at an alarming rate, and he’s convinced it’s because DuPont poisoned the nearby water supply. He’s right, of course, but proving it won’t be easy, nor will establishing a chain of intentionality that might make DuPont liable for cleanup and restitution.

What follows is a detective story with a nice guy lawyer at its center. Robert Billott is convincingly portrayed by Ruffalo as a sort of human version of Droopy the Dog, a cartoon character who defeated flashier, more volatile adversaries by being unflappable, indomitable and polite, and showing up where his foes least expected it. Haynes uses wide shots to emphasize Ruffalo’s modest height compared to looming costars like Tim Robbins (as Billott’s boss Tom Terp). The actor’s turtle-in-a-shell body language further emphasizes that this smart, ethical man is financially, politically, even scientifically outgunned when trying to prove that DuPont has been dumping toxic waste into West Virginia soil, causing cancer, distemper, and rotting teeth in humans and animals alike.

Moviegoers who keep up with environmental news (or who have read about the actual case that inspired “Dark Waters”) know that the farmer’s plight is a gateway to a wider discussion of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), a byproduct of one of DuPont’s most lucrative postwar products, teflon. This in turn leads to a wider and more alarming look at toxic chemicals that are spread through the water supply, enter human bodies, and stay there. 

And it’s that last bit of information that gives the movie a grim charge. At its most controlled and insinuating, “Dark Waters” is reminiscent of paranoid thrillers from the 1970s like “ The Parallax View ” and “ Chinatown .” In those kinds of movies, you know going in that you’re going to see a story about how bad things are, thanks to corporate influence over government as well as the economy, but the extent of the corruption is still shocking, highlighting the implicit question: why fight, if the bad guys have already won? The answer, of course, is that you should fight because it’s the right thing to do, and because even the promise of justice is slim, it’s a public service of a more diminished kind to show people how broken the system is.

Written by Mario Correa and  Matthew Michael Carnahan (“ Lions for Lambs “) from a New York Times Magazine story , and shepherded by co-producer Ruffalo, an environmental activist, “Dark Waters” never entirely overcomes a formulaic quality that tends to dog even the best examples of this kind of picture. This is noticeable not just in the storytelling rhythms, which twist and turn pretty much when you expect them to (a satisfying triumph followed by a deflating reversal of fortune), but also in the way it portrays Billott’s relationship with his supportive but understandably worn-out wife Sarah, played by Anne Hathaway . Sarah gives birth to two children during the course of a tale that takes more than a dozen years to play out, worrying about DuPont-caused birth defects the whole time; but she has to be content with a mainly advisory or sounding-board role, and the movie is never less convincing than when Sarah is announcing that she’s not just The Wife in a heroic man’s story. (To be fair, it’s hard to say how this could’ve been remedied; Billott is our guide through the story as well as the audience’s mirror. But maybe there was a way to make Sarah not sound as if she’s arguing with reviews that haven’t been written yet?)

But “Dark Waters” is still a strong and involving, though understated, example of this dying breed of film, resonating with present-day feelings of hopelessness at the brazen corruption on display every day in the United States, and throughout the world. Haynes might not initially seem like the kind of director you’d expect to see attached to this sort of project. But he has a keen eye for the narratively meaningful camera move (notice how often the movie starts a scene in darkness or by zeroing in on an out-of-focus element, then gradually makes the image clear) and undeniable skill with actors ( Victor Garber as the CEO of DuPont is a perfect distillation of the nice-guy arrogance of the super-rich). The script is good at showing the hero doing the necessary work to get to a breakthrough, whether by sitting by himself on the floor of a storage room and going through hundreds of boxes of evidence documents, or carefully re-reading a letter from DuPont until he realizes it doesn’t say what everyone else thinks it says. (How often do movies make reading comprehension cinematic? Almost never.) 

The film also makes sense as part of the HCU (Haynes Cinematic Universe). Fans of the director’s work will sense affinities between this movie and “ Safe ,” about a woman suffering from environmental illness. It also echoes Haynes’ self-aware period pieces “Mildred Pierce” and “Far From Heaven,” which were partly about how social norms (be they sexist, racist, homophobic or, in this film’s case, class-based) enable the status quo to preserve itself. 

For all its patience and droll humor, this is an angry movie, rightly so. The most crowd-pleasing moments find Ruffalo transformed into a Jimmy Stewart- or Tom Hanks-level idealistic Everyman, railing against the world’s evils while also taking the time to explain how they became entrenched, and how it’s still possible to fight them, in a small way, at great cost. 

Matt Zoller Seitz

Matt Zoller Seitz is the Editor-at-Large of RogerEbert.com, TV critic for New York Magazine and Vulture.com, and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism.

• Mark Ruffalo as Robert Bilott
• Anne Hathaway as Sarah Bilott
• Tim Robbins as Tom Terp
• Bill Camp as Wilbur Tennant

Cinematography

• Edward Lachman
• Marcelo Zarvos
• Mario Correa
• Matthew Carnahan
• Todd Haynes

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7 Horror Movies That Will Creep You Out Like No Other

Released on July 30, 2009, Lake Mungo unfurls the disturbing tale of Alice Palmer, a 16-year-old who drowns in a local dam. Her family, grappling with their immense grief, begins to experience a series of strange, inexplicable events centered around their home. In desperation, they turn to a psychic and parapsychologist who uncovers that Alice led a secret, double life. The chilling revelations linked with Lake Mungo make this film a haunting exploration of the unknown.

The Empty Man

On October 22, 2020, The Empty Man brought a new level of terror to the screens. The plot revolves around retired cop James Lasombra, who delves into the mysterious disappearance of his friend’s daughter. Anchored around the ominous message "The Empty Man Made Me Do It" left on her bathroom mirror, James is thrust into a world of strange occurrences that compel him to confront the darkness of his past. A psychological horror that creeps under your skin and lingers long after the credits roll.

The Wailing

The Wailing , released on May 12, 2016, immerses viewers into an eerie village plagued by a mysterious sickness following the arrival of a stranger. The story, which focuses on a policeman tasked with solving the mystery to save his daughter, masterfully combines supernatural elements with intense emotional narratives. This South Korean horror film is renowned for its intricate plot twists and deeply unsettling atmosphere.

Grace, a devoutly religious woman, fiercely protects her two children, who suffer from a rare sensitivity to light, in the haunting drama The Others , released on August 2, 2001. As strange events and visions begin to terrorize their old, darkened house, Grace becomes convinced that they are haunted. This film skillfully builds tension and fear through atmospheric horror and unexpected plot twists, making it a gripping watch.

Premiering on October 9, 2020, Saint Maud is an unsettling psychological horror that follows the devout nurse Maud. Tasked with caring for Amanda, a once-prominent dancer now frail from illness, Maud’s intense religious fervor starts to manifest in peculiar and disturbing ways. A chance meeting with someone from her past hints at more darkness within Maud than first apparent, spinning a chilling narrative of faith and obsession.

The Blackcoat's Daughter

The Blackcoat's Daughter , released on March 31, 2017, delves into the disturbing events at a prestigious prep school where two young women are left stranded over winter break. An evil, invisible power begins to terrorize them, creating a spine-chilling atmosphere that intensifies with every scene. This film's disturbing aesthetic and eerie silence make it a standout in the horror genre.

Released on January 19, 2002, Dark Water portrays the nightmarish saga of a woman entangled in a bitter divorce, who moves with her young daughter to a decrepit apartment. Their new home, marked by a persistent and menacing leak in the ceiling, soon becomes the epicenter of bizarre and sinister events. This film, directed by the renowned Hideo Nakata, emphasizes psychological horror with a chilling narrative that keeps audiences on edge.

Brace yourselves for an unforgettable experience filled with horror and intrigue as you explore these must-watch films. Each movie offers a unique blend of unsettling themes and masterful storytelling that is bound to keep you on the edge of your seat. Happy haunting!

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• Blu-ray/DVD edition reviewed by Chris Galloway
• October 27 2016

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After terrifying audiences worldwide with the blockbuster J-horror classic Ring and its sequel, director Hideo Nakata returned to the genre for Dark Water, another highly atmospheric, and critically acclaimed, tale of the supernatural which took the common theme of the "dead wet girl" to new heights of suspense and drama. Based upon on a short story by Ring author Koji Suzuki, Dark Water follows Yoshimi, a single mother struggling to win sole custody of her only child, Ikuko. When they move into a new home within a dilapidated and long-forgotten apartment complex, Yoshimi begins to experience startling visions and unexplainable sounds, calling her mental well-being into question, and endangering not only her custody of Ikuko, but perhaps their lives as well. Beautifully shot by the same cinematographer as Ring and Pulse, and featuring an especially unnerving sound design, Dark Water successfully merges spine-tingling tension with a family's heart-wrenching emotional struggle, creating one of the very finest and most unsettling contemporary Japanese horror films.

Picture 5/10

Extras 7/10

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Dark Waters

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Watch Dark Waters with a subscription on Netflix, rent on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV, or buy on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV.

What to Know

Dark Waters powerfully relays a real-life tale of infuriating malfeasance, honoring the victims and laying blame squarely at the feet of the perpetrators.

Critics Reviews

Audience reviews, cast & crew.

Todd Haynes

Mark Ruffalo

Robert Bilott

Anne Hathaway

Sarah Bilott

Tim Robbins

Wilbur Tennant

Victor Garber

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