The Hollywood version of 'Dark Water' is based on a Japanese horror film, which I haven't seem, so I can't really compare the two. However, whether on not it surpasses its source material, I have to say it's a pretty creepy little number.

A woman (Jennifer Connelly) is going through a divorce and custody battle for her daughter (Ariel Gade) and moves to a run-down apartment in New York until the proceedings are over. It's hardly five-star housing and there are water leaks everywhere. And, if that wasn't bad enough to bring up a child, the family is haunted by the presence of another young girl.

Since the success of the English version of 'The Ring' the 2000s saw quite a few horror films where a woman slowly uncovers something supernatural until she has to confront it head on in the final act. 'Dark Water' certainly fits into that genre, but it's definitely a cut above the rest. For a start it has a stellar cast. I've already mentioned Connolly, but there are also excellent performances from Tim Roth as a supportive (but flawed!) lawyer, Pete Postlethwaite as a useless building supervisor and John C Reilly as the superbly-slimy estate agent. Dougray Scott is also good, but doesn't have quite as much to work with as the others and Ariel Gade is very good as the young girl, never really coming across as annoying as so many child actors in similar roles.

Another thing that works for the film is the atmosphere. You really get the sense of a dark, depressing world that's ripe for haunting by unrested spirits. It could be described as a bit of a 'slow burner' as the real 'meat' of the story doesn't really get going until the final act. Prior to that is mainly character building and setting up the horror that's finally waiting for our protagonists.

I won't say too much about the story, as you only really get one chance to watch it and not know where it's going. A couple of the plot points surprised me, so I won't spoil anything. It may not be a blood-bath and it's probably got a few too many 'jump scares' for some people's liking in the opening two acts, but, overall, it's a very atmospheric, creepy little number that horror fans who like a slow build of terror should enjoy.

Of all the recent remakes of Japanese horror films, I have to say that Dark Water is the only remake that actually surpasses the original. I think the reason that so many people are so hard on it is because they went in expecting to see THE RING or THE GRUDGE. They went in expecting to see a scary ghost movie. Dark Water is not really a horror movie, at least not in the traditional sense. It's actually more of a drama set in a haunted apartment complex. If you go in expecting to have stuff jump out at you, you will be disappointed.

It's sad that everyone expects horror films to have a bunch of jump scares in them these days. Whatever happened to the slow buildup of tension and paranoia of something like ROSEMARY'S BABY? If you go into Dark Water expecting something more akin to Rosemary's Baby or a Hitchcock thriller, you might just end up enjoying this film.

As far as comparing this remake to the original, I will say that I felt that Jennifer Connelly was a much more compelling character than the mother in the original movie. Overall, the characters were fleshed out better. I understood the conflict between the mother, the father and the little girl much more in the remake. The original just sort of glanced over many of these details. Some of the shots were actually more effective than the ones in the original, and the ending in the remake is more satisfying and better executed than in the original. Generally, I think that J-horror is better left in its original incarnation. As much as I liked the Western version of THE RING, I felt like the only reason they remade it was to cast Naomi Watts as the lead. THE GRUDGE, they should have left that one alone. Nothing was gained by Sarah Michelle Gellar. But this one, this one is actually better than the Japanese original in my opinion.

This movie is not for everyone. It is a slow, poignant drama set in a really creepy location. It would probably play well in a double feature with ROSEMARY'S BABY. If you want to have stuff jump out at you, watch THE GRUDGE. If you want to watch a movie that has a little more depth to it, watch DARK WATER.

Watching this film taught me something: just because a film is a remake doesn't necessarily mean that it's bad. Now, DARK WATER has no right to be any good. It's a remake of the Japanese horror film of the same name and as we all know, American remakes of Japanese ghost films are invariably dodgy (think Sarah Michelle Gellar in THE GRUDGE). The astonishing thing is that DARK WATER is a brilliant little film; in this instance I haven't seen the original Japanese movie, but I don't see how it could improve on this.

The movie works because it's about people; it's a human drama with real-life characters in situations that almost anybody can identify with. Jennifer Connelly is a delight as the single mother trying to do her best for her young daughter, and her performance of a fragile, slightly disturbed 30-something woman is the key to this movie's success. There's a wonderful ensemble cast who back her up nicely: John C. Reilly as the landlord from hell; Pete Postlethwaite, scene-stealing as the buck-passing janitor; Tim Roth as a divorce lawyer; Dougray Scott as the nasty father.

The ghosts themselves end up almost incidental to the thrust of the main story, but the supernatural aspects of the film are well handled and chill-inducing rather than outright shocking. What I liked best was the cinematography: never has a building had so much character as the run-down apartment block on display here. The damp patch on the ceiling is almost a character in itself. Brazilian director Walter Salles handles the rain-sodden locales very well indeed and crafts a spine-tingling atmosphere that propels the film along nicely. Add to this a genuine tearjerker of an ending, the total absence of any needless CGI effects or violence and a pleasingly mature, literate script that caters for an adult rather than teenage audience for once (unlike THE GRUDGE remake) and you have a very good film indeed.