Dark Water (2002)

Australian Premiere – 4K Restoration

“This really very scary Japanese ghost story from director Hideo Nakata exerts a chilling grip with its icy calm and eerie reticence”. – Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

Director Hideo Nakata follows up the success of his supernatural horror classic Ringu with this gothic ghost story of tragedy and neglect.

Following a bitter divorce, Yoshimi attempts to keep custody of her six-year old daughter despite her ex-husband’s accusations of paranoia and mental instability. When the pair move into a rundown apartment, a persistent leak from the ceiling and visions of a missing little girl gradually reveal clues to a past tragedy in the building.

Constant rain and creeping damp permeate the film with an atmosphere of melancholy. Dark Water is a haunting exploration of the perpetuating cycles of abandonment and a fitting continuation of Nakata’s cinema of the enfant terrible.

Festival Appearances/Awards
Chicago International Film Festival 2002 – Official Selection
International Film Festival Rotterdam 2002 – Official Selection
Fantasia Film Festival 2002 – Official Selection

Screening as part of FLESH//GHOST//MACHINE: Japanese Nightmares.