Movie review: Dark Water (2002)

Since I had another lone Halloween all to myself, I took the opportunity to finally complete the original J-horror trio (this, The Ring and Ju-On) by watching me this classic.

I'll make it short: it's not scary - barely an horror movie, really - but good human drama that mixes well with the creepy and tense ambiance. In fact, the ambiance is the only thing it's got going for it, with its drab gray walls and suffocating water/humidity theme that zoomers would most certainly compare to the backrooms aesthetics; the Blu-Ray's strong film grain is a very good match for it!

But it's got two large issues: it's way too slow for what it is and I think the spooky backstory behind Mitsuko doesn't make much sense (aggressive ghosts usually aren't usually birthed from purely accidental deaths).

Much better than Ju-On, but far from The Ring, which is the only one that aged gracefully and still deserves its hype, in my opinion. Outside of the original trio, I still love Kurosawa's Cure and look fondly upon the kitsch but still deranging Noroi and (somewhat) Kairo.