Midway through “Dark Water,” Dahlia (Jennifer Connelly) creeps up to the 10th floor of her derelict apartment building and stops at the door of the apartment directly above hers. Unaware of what horrors might await her on the other side, she knocks on the door, only to find it is already ajar. She slowly pushes it open, revealing … water.
Oh no! Run! It’s water!
Rarely is a film so dull that it inspires a discussion of its banality amongst strangers at the movie theater urinals, but “Dark Water,” a new horror flick based on a book penned byfilm.
That hand belongs to Japanese novelist Kôji Suzuki, and his success with “The Ring” has inspired in him a strict adherence to the old American maxim: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Since completing “The Ring,” Suzuki has written “The Ring Two” and “Dark Water” — all of which have a great deal in common.
Both “The Ring” and “Dark Water” feature bleak settings, ghostly little girls who might or might not have malicious intentions, and an odd fascination with all things wet. One crucial difference separates the two films: In “The Ring,” scary stuff happened; in “Dark Water,” nothing does.
It is difficult to say without reading Suzuki’s original novels whether the problems with “Dark Water” lie in the film’s script or are carried over from the novel. Regardless of the origin, “Dark Water” has problems.
The story is pretty standard horror fare. A single mom and her china doll of a daughter move into an apartment building that is haunted not only by ghosts, but also by an assorted group of creepy, still-living specters, such as the vaguely foreign — and thus scary, right? — superintendent, Mr. Veeck.
“Dark Water,” is awash in variously shaded liquids. When you aren’t seeing water on the screen, everything is bathed in a blue-green aura, making it seem as if the apartment building itself is some kind of industrial aquarium.
When it comes to suspense and plot development, though, “Dark Water” is bone dry.
