Genre: Thriller, Drama, Ghosts, Supernatural, Haunted House, Suspense, Law, School / Campus, Infidelity
Tagline: Some mysteries were never meant to be solved.
Plot: It all begins inside Apartment 9F. This is where a single mother, Dahlia Williams (Academy Award® winner Jennifer Connelly), is trying to make a brand-new start in life. Attempting to escape from a bitter custody battle with her estranged husband, Dahlia moves with her daughter Ceci to a dilapidated, sprawling housing block on Roosevelt Island at the very edges of New York City. Their new home provides little refuge. The rundown tower’s creepy noises, rickety elevator and sinister dark water stains are eerie enough. But Dahlia soon begins to suspect there is a far greater threat.Just who or what is it that is playing mind games with Dahlia—and can she trust her own senses when her imagination is also running wild? As Ceci’s ghostly encounters and an array of strange occurrences continue to build, Dahlia suddenly must question who she can trust and in what she can believe. But she will stop at nothing to figure out the riddle and protect her daughter…even as the dark water closes in around them. A world of familiar household objects, moods and emotions is transformed into a realm of relentless menace and dread in DARK WATER as the mystery
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 This picture doesn't have deep enough currents to succeed as a psychological thriller and, as a ghost story, there are times when it has trouble treading water.  --James Berardinelli (ReelViews)
The climax is certainly over the top, and we're never quite sure how all the parts of the mystery fit together, but then the movie is about the horror of the mystery, not about its solution. Most important, I cared about the Jennifer Connelly character; she is not a horror heroine, but an actress playing a mother faced with horror. There is a difference, and because of that difference, "Dark Water" works.  --Roger Ebert (Chicago Sun-Times)
But there is a subtext lingering underneath all the creep and crud—enough that you can feel the potentially smart dissection of divorce, single motherhood, and madness straining to deepen. Unfortunately, confined by the supposed thrills and chills of pseudo-J-horror, the film's allegorical depth remains, unlike all the ooze saturating Connelly’s digs, hopelessly clogged. --KIM MORGAN (Reel.com)
Director Walter Salles sometimes tries damned hard to scare audiences with gallons upon gallons of unfiltered water, but not once are you scared. When an antagonist can be tamed with a patch of plaster or a Brita filter, you know you’re running on empty.  --J.P. Mangalindan (MovieWeb)
Seriously, you’re going to think you’ve died and gone to movie hell by the time the credits roll. It’s that bad. D+--Rebecca Murray
The ending is straight out of “The Ring” and dozens of other horror flicks. This film is a wilter. The ending sucks...Still, it might be worth seeing for the brilliant performances by all involved.  --Eric Lurio
Dark Water is one classy fright flick. It dares to leave things to the viewer's imagination....Dark Water will leave some viewers scratching their heads, while others will be wide-eyed with appreciation. This viewer, at least, is reasonably wide-eyed. B--PHILIP WUNTCH
Dark Water is indeed dark, but not in the mind-twisting, sinister, ghostly way you would have hoped. No, it's more like in a doom-and-gloom way that makes you want to slit your wrists. And talk about water. There's a ton of it--dark brown, corroded water--all over the place. Get ready to be saturated with it.  --Kit Bowen (Hollywood.com)
Narrowly focused and appropriately claustrophobic, Dark Water creates believability by balancing life's small annoyances (elevators that stop at the wrong floors) with darker, more malignant events. Sometimes, as the movie makes clear, it can feel as if there's no relief on either front. B--Robert Denerstein
The point of "Dark Water" appears to parallel that of "The Ring": something about water, abandonment and terror among dark-haired females with an affinity for terror-stricken screaming....No one said "Dark Water" runs deep.  --Jeff Farance
Do you want your skin to crawl and jump out of your seat a few times? Then I suggest you go see "Dark Water", the new release by Touchstone Pictures. This is one scary haunted house film and it is by the same author who gave us "The Ring".  --Paul Perkins
Dark Water was one creep film the kind of film that will give you the Goosebumps, I know I had them.  --Clyde Ayles
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Walter Salles
The Motorcycle Diaries, Central Station, Behind the Sun |
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| "Dark Water," a thriller-horror hybrid about real estate, rain and bad parenting, could serve as a public service announcement with a very simple message: Never step off an elevator before your grade-schooler. B --Kevin Canfield (TheJournalNews)
"Dark Water" has the look of a horror story that went horribly wrong at some point along the production pipeline, prompting the filmmakers to "save" it by adding a comic touch, which also went wrong. The underlying themes are somber, including the heroine's psychological problems, and there's plenty of gothic terror. But the end product is so clunky, scattered, and all-around soggy that sometimes you can't help laughing.  --David Sterritt
Fans of The Ring, and all of the latest horror movies for that matter, will probably enjoy this film. Others may have mixed feelings about it much like I did. I would definitely recommend seeing this movie in the theaters for one reason. And that’s mainly because your television cannot compare to the big screen. If you want to see a scary movie these days and actually be scared, the movie theater is probably your best option. C+--Daniel Portnoy (TheCinemaSource)
Much like the original film, we are told in the opening scenes that there is indeed a ghost girl tromping about in her wet Mary Janes, leaving puddles all over the place and causing mischief. So when the strange things start to happen, we’re several steps ahead of the characters – and waiting for them to catch up to us gets real old, real fast. --Brian Buzz Juergens (Bloody-Disgusting.com)
Drama and horror is never a good mix; this is the perfect example. If you're looking for scares, look elsware. If you wanna see a troubled mother struggle with custody of her daughter, check this. 6/10--FrighT MasteR (UHM)
Dark Water is just an average movie that had a chance of being something special. It's viewable, especially because of the great cast, but after seeing its potential in the beginning, it's all the more disappointing when you're subjected to its completely unfulfilling end. 6/10--Albert Koleba (thefilmasylum.com)
I'm disappointed to see that somehow they managed to ruin a perfectly good movie so badly. They've removed everything creepy about the original and made it a long and drawn out drama which feels not only unoriginal but also very sloppy.  --AnthroFred (SlasherPool)
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