Dark Water (2005) Reviews
Critic & User Reviews
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Critic Reviews
Salles brings an explorer's eye and breathless curiosity to this fetid milieu, and he gets the most brilliant performances imaginable for this sort of movie.
Read the full reviewMost 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.
Read the full reviewIn a movie with more subtext than "Rosemary's Baby," nearly everyone, including Tim Roth as Dahlia's lawyer, harbors secrets. Salles unleashes a torrent of suspense for one purpose: to plumb the violence of the mind.
Read the full reviewBrazilian Walter Salles, who previously directed the Oscar-nominated films "Central Station" and "The Motorcycle Diaries," guides this stylish remake through treacherous territory to create a distressing, subtly suspenseful film full of emotional resonance.
Read the full reviewA shudder-by-numbers pseudo-J-horror gothic, full of supernatural stunts you feel as if you've seen before the movie even gets to them.
Read the full reviewDark Water has more substance and a more interesting look than many horror films, but the familiar elements of the story disappoint.
Read the full reviewThis 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.
Read the full reviewThe new version is out of scale with the basic premise -- too much rain, too much water, too much doom, gloom and intricate eccentricity.
Read the full reviewThere's something that never quite works about the film.
Read the full reviewDark Water devolves into something resembling genre schlock, albeit the kind featuring zesty supporting performances from the classy, Oscar-nominated likes of John C. Reilly, Tim Roth, and Pete Postlethwaite.
Read the full reviewWith his stirring visual sense very much intact here, Salles sets the creepy mood eloquently, but the picture -- ultimately fails to reward all the little shivers with any satisfying jolts.
Read the full reviewIf only the explanation and resolution of the action were more compelling, Dark Water might have been a thriller of the first order.
Read the full reviewAs the movie is in step with Connelly's aching heroine and not trying to scare our socks off, Dark Water is of a piece with Salles's sensitive filmmaking. Obviously, from a genre standpoint, that presents a tremendous problem. Nobody goes to a horror movie for a good cry.
Read the full reviewDark, dank, damp, grim, dingy and dour, Dark Water is a tasteful but unremitting bummer.
Read the full reviewWildly overproduced and filled with fussy flourishes that make even a derelict hallway look like a million bucks, Dark Water fails to rustle up either meaning or meaningful scares.
Read the full reviewReview excerpts provided by Metacritic.com.
The Metascore® designation for this movie is 52
User Reviews
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from Horror to Tear Jerker
"It was a "OK" horror film, but, I was disappointed with the end---I hate sad endings. I would give it 2 stars out of 5. It goes from a horror film to a tear Jerker at the end"
My Review
"Dark Water was a watery mess. Every trick it tried to pull had been done somewhere before, and a lot better. It had its proverbial creepy little girl, the painfully cliche scary house, and the concerned-mom bit that we all recognized from The Ring and other predecessors. Jennifer Connely only rubs salt in the wound with her flat acting. The makers of this film might consider switching it to another genre besides horror, because "horror" is not anything close to what the movie conveys."
luved it!
"i am obsessed with dark water!i loved seeing ceci happy,that's why i hate the end when natasha drowns the mom but i smiled when the mom said in the elevator,as a ghost ,whenever you need me i'll be here."
SUCKED!!!!!!!
"This movie could not get any worse! No one should ever see this movie! It was not even scary one bit! I give it 2 thumbs down!!"
A GOOD GHOST MOVIE
"This movie is the kind of movie that people go to see,because it is scary,thrilling, has you on the edge of your seat,and has you biteing your nail because you are scared.This was a good writen/directed/produced/acted movie. all of the cast did amazing.this will be a horror clasic.the first day it came out on dvd i bought it.it is a really good movie.also you should wach this in the middle of the night you will be verry scared!"
Awesome movie!
"The beginning was a bit slow, but the ending was all worth it!"
Dark Nothing
"Thihs moovie is a play on what goes bump in the night...excpt nothing goes bump. nothing happens in the move untill the end...if you want to wach it i wont give the end away, but it is definently a waste of movie money."
ARE U SERIOUS?
"This movie was UNBELIEVABLY bad. I would even go as far as saying the worst movie ive seen since austin powers and most definetely the worst "horror" movie iv'e ever seen. Through the whole movie, I pretty much new everything that was going to happen. It was very predictable. Nothing even happened until the end of the movie. It didnt even have a real plot! It's basically about a leak in a ceiling, a woman's delusions, and a girl with an imaginary friend. And me saying that right there makes it sound even scarier than it really was! The critics who reviewed this must be on crack, and the person who made this movie must be too. A BIG waste of my $8. I knew i should've not switched my ticket from War of the Worlds to this junk they call a movie. Too bad...."
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