Always Right Movie Review'dustries

Dark Water is a cross between a horror film and a psychological thriller, leaning more towards the psychological thriller end of the spectrum. It is about a mother, Dahlia, and her daughter, Cecilia. They have moved into a rundown apartment complex on the edge of New York City. Dahlia is in the middle of a custody battle with the father, Kyle.

When they first look at the apartment, Cecilia is immediately turned off and wants nothing to do with it. But as the "tour" progresses she wanders off and ends up on the roof of the building. I immediately expected, thanks to Rune, a leap of faith to occur during the movie... I will spoil the plot for you now: it does not happen ;) After being found on the roof and a mild scolding for wandering off, Cecilia declares that she wants to live in this building. Spooky huh? Not long after moving in water stains begin appearing on the ceiling of the bedroom of their aparment, and occasionally dirty water pours out of the faucets (hence the title).

These events eventually reveal secrets from the past of both the mother and previous occupants. This is truly a psychological thriller as it concentrates on the relationship between a mother and her daughter. The movie does a great job of building suspense and even provides a surprise ending (for me anyway). I have to confess though that I disliked the ending, but I cannot reveal my reason without a huge spoiler.

Before I give this movie a rating, I am going to submit a list of uniform ratings for the reviewers of this blog to use. Comment about any modifications you think are needed.

First, the ratings from best to good:

• Godlike
• Unstoppable
• Dominating
• Rampage
• Killing Spree

Second, the ratings from bad to worst:

• Dying Spree
• Slaughtered
• Dominated
• Stoppable
• Swanlike (take that Zeus! Kindof an inside joke for a friend)

Now for a rating of Dark Water, I would rate it as Slaughtered based upon the ending, but the movie did such a great job building suspense that I am going to give it a little boost up. I will rate it as Dying Spree. A change to the ending may have justified it as being a good movie, as it is I do not regret renting.