A chilling tale of psychological terror that probes unsettling questions about where we live, who we can trust and the things that we fear the most, DARK WATER revisits anew an original Japanese short story by highly regarded horror writer Koji Suzuki, which was in turn the inspiration for an influential Japanese feature film directed by Hideo Nakata.
Suzuki and Nakata are perhaps best known for another explosive work of spine-tingling, edge-of-your-seat psychological suspense—“The Ring”—which became one of the most talked-about international horror-thriller films ever in the version directed by Nakata and later went on to become a critically acclaimed hit in its Hollywood remake starring Naomi Watts.
But while “The Ring” focused on an accursed videotape that threatened death to all who watched it, DARK WATER draws the wages of fear much closer to everyday adult reality with its story of a modern single mother and an urban apartment that seems to literally be bursting at the seams with memories and malevolence.
Nakata’s Japanese version of DARK WATER came several years after “The Ring” and was hailed as one of his greatest works as well as the very height of the Japanese horror film experience—at once richly emotional, psychologically complex and unremittingly rife with tension.
It was the unforgettably scary experience of watching Nakata’s film that first attracted producers Bill Mechanic, Roy Lee and Doug Davison to the idea of bringing the story to a wider American audience. Says Mechanic: “The film was simultaneously smart and terrifying—and it immediately brought to mind classic thrillers like ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ and ‘The Shining.’ There was also something very universal about it—the suspense was wrapped around themes of abandonment and isolation that we thought American audiences would really relate to on a gut level. I was so impressed, I bought the rights within five minutes of seeing the film.”
Now, the question became how to approach the horror story in a whole new way to embody a realistic New York City setting and distinctively American characters and themes—all while still keeping the mystery and anxiety cranked up to maximum levels. To accomplish this, the producers brought in highly regarded screenwriter Rafael Yglesias, who had never written in the horror-thriller genre before but whose human and psychological insights have graced screenplays for such films as Peter Weir’s “Fearless” and Roman Polanski’s “Death and the Maiden.”
It was the opportunity to explore the anatomy of fear in its deepest, darkest domestic crevices that drew Yglesias to the project. “I have always wanted to write a ghost story and this was a chance to create a very American ghost story,” he says. “In the U.S., our ghosts are unique in that I believe they always have some kind of unfulfilled needs, something they hunger for without end. In our story, this all-consuming need is the desire for a loving mother. Ultimately, it’s what unites Dahlia and the ghost who is haunting her, which makes for a very intriguing and frightening proposition.”
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