145. Dark Water (2005)

Starring: Jennifer Connelly, John C. Reilly, Pete Postlethwaite

Director: Walter Salles

Running Time: 105 mins

Dark Water is an American film about a divorced woman who moves into a flat in a run-down block with her daughter, on the outskirts of New York. However, after a few strange happenings, they realise that they are being targeted by the ghost of the person who used to live upstairs…

Finally, I’ve actually seen a decent horror film. This wasn’t actually much of a horror film, i.e. it wasn’t very scary at all, but I found some of the story and some of the mind-messing incredibly exciting.

In terms of the story, it was actually partly unpredictable as to what was going on in the flat upstairs, causing all of this water to drip into their flat, and why the little girl kept having these mind attacks, which they suspect to be a ghost of sorts. (Honestly, I think that the whole story about the girl could have been left out, it wasn’t as good as the rest of the film.)

Also, I think that the use of black, grungy water to mess with the protagonist’s mind was a fantastic choice, because it is just visually disgusting, more so than blood or waste, due to the fact that you think that it should be clear, but it is in fact one of the dirtiest things in the world.

Overall, this gets a 7.8, because it was fantastically exciting and different, while the story was also very interesting, but I must stress that if you are looking for a film to be scared by, don’t watch this, because it isn’t scary at all…