Dark Water (2005): The Horror Movie That Drowned in Silence—Here’s Why You Never Heard From It Again!
Added on October 6, 2025 inEntertainment News Cards, Movie News Cards
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Ever wonder if a horror remake can drown in its own dark waters? Well, twenty years ago, Dark Water splashed onto screens—except this wasn’t your typical ghost story with jump scares galore. Starring Jennifer Connelly and John C. Reilly, and directed by the ever-youthful Walter Salles, this 2005 flick tried to ride the J-horror wave Hollywood was cashing in on… but did it succeed or just leak like a faulty roof during a monsoon? Think monsoon vibes—with Mars probably clawing at Neptune’s watery house, stirring up emotional storms and foggy boundaries—this film offers more a haunting domestic drama than a scream factory. So, what happened to this soggy remake that barely scared but somehow carved a strange legacy tied to a real-life eerie water mystery? Grab your umbrellas, because we’re plunging deep into this cinematic dive to find out if Dark Water was a slow trickle or a flood of lost potential. LEARN MORE
The What Happened to This Horror Movie episode on Dark Water was written by Jaime Vasquez:
After a few years of successful Japanese horror remakes, the summer of 2005 saw the release of yet another J-horror inspired film: Dark Water. Now, to be clear, this isn’t the pirate cartoon, the random TV movie, or the knock-off thriller on streaming. This is the one starring Jennifer Connelly and John C. Reilly. And directed by Walter Salles, you know, the billionaire in his late ‘60s who somehow looks about twenty years younger and like he just walked off a GQ shoot. Twenty years ago, Dark Water hit theaters and managed a decent box-office run, though critically, it paled in comparison to the original. So what are the big differences between the remake and its source? Who was almost cast in the lead? Does this movie even belong in the horror genre? And how did a tragic real-life case give it a legacy nobody saw coming? Let’s dive into the deep end and figure out what happened to 2005’s Dark Water.
Japanese horror was riding high in the late ’90s and the 2000s, thanks to its bold, forward-thinking storytelling and bone-chilling scares. Then the real horror began: Hollywood decided to cash in. Along came a wave of remakes that watered down both the terror and the innovation. Sure, The Ring turned out solid, but let’s be honest, it doesn’t hold a candle to the nightmare fuel of the original. Dark Water was one of many J-horror remakes, and to its credit, it did manage to stand apart from the endless parade of CGI ghost kids that were creeping not only into theaters, but on TV, video rental stores… Honestly, American J-horror villains were so rampant at the time, it’s kind of shocking McDonald’s didn’t offer The Ring or The Grudge Happy Meal toys.
The original Dark Water was released in 2002 and earned strong praise from both critics and audiences, who admired how its creepiness underscored a genuinely emotional, dramatic storyline. It was based on a short story called Floating Water, the first of seven tales in Koji Suzuki’s water-themed collection Dark Water. The film adaptation ditched the short story title and just used the collection title instead… because it made for a better movie title? Because they didn’t read the book? I don’t know. But of course, the U.S. remake did the same thing.
Before Dark Water, screenwriter Rafael Yglesias had a few credits that helped show off his range. He co-wrote the 1998 non-musical version of Les Misérables with Liam Neeson and Geoffrey Rush, then jumped into horror territory with 2001’s From Hell, where Johnny Depp psychically tracks Jack the Ripper’s future murders. And wouldn’t you know it, the visions just so happen to lead him to the doorstep of a redheaded Heather Graham as the next victim. Tough job, indeed. In 2024, Walter Salles directed I’m Still Here, a Portuguese autobiographical film that not only won critical acclaim but also took home the Oscar for Best International Feature. Nearly two decades earlier, he had found similar success with another autobiographical project, The Motorcycle Diaries.
Salles landed the job directing Dark Water thanks to his Oscar-nominated drama Central Station from 1998, which proved he could handle the messy dramatics of motherhood. He also admitted to drawing inspiration from Roman Polanski, whose films impressed him from an early age. Dark Water echoed the paranoia and dread of two Polanski classics; Rosemary’s Baby and Repulsion. After making his mark with Portuguese and Spanish films, Salles was ready to step into his first English-language project with the horror remake, explaining that what drew him to the project was the script, and the characters that seemed to jump right off the page.
Rafael Yglesias described Dark Water as a “Freudian horror movie.” To him, the murky water and ghostly presence weren’t just scares, but metaphors for the lead character’s unraveling mental state. Yglesias explained that this story of a woman in jeopardy, not from a serial killer, but from the collapse of her own psyche, was an idea he had been carrying around for a long time.
Funny enough, the leading role was offered to an actress who’s spent plenty of screen time running from a serial killer: Jennifer Love Hewitt. She declined, and the part went to Jennifer Connelly instead. Honestly, that probably worked out for the best. Hewitt might’ve brought her scream queen energy, but Connelly’s signature realism was a perfect match for the film’s brooding tone. After working steadily since the early ’80s as a child actor, Connelly’s career really picked up steam in the early 2000s. She garnered attention from her role in the gut wrenching cult classic Requiem for a Dream in 2000, and won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for 2001’s highly acclaimed, A Beautiful Mind. Not usually one to ham up a performance, Connelly avoids any melodrama and delivers a grounded performance. As Dahlia, a mother trapped in a constant state of worry, her presence is one of the film’s greatest strengths. There’s even a scene where the water situation gets so out of hand that every room of the apartment becomes flooded. Watching her sob tugs at the heart strings, despite me swearing off having feelings several years ago.
Joining Connelly is John C. Reilly as the sleazy but charming building manager, Mr. Murray. Reilly claimed that the film’s script was one of the scariest he’d ever read, which is saying a lot considering his work with Paul Thomas Anderson. Reilly based his performance on Elisha Cook Jr.’s Mr. Nicklas in Rosemary’s Baby, and as always, he nails it. Ariel Gade plays Ceci, Dahlia’s daughter. Gade sets herself apart from other child actors, remaining sweet and likeable and someone you genuinely wanna see dodge the horror instead of, spoiler alert, having a moment like the little boy in Final Destination: Bloodlines. Pete Postlewaite shows up as Mr. Veeck, the creepy, cranky, slimy, grimy maintenance man who walks the line of “too sleazy to be a villain” and “too sleazy not to be” throughout the film. Tim Roth plays Dahlia’s divorce lawyer, Jeff Platzer. It feels like Platzer very much holds Dahlia’s sanity in his hands, as he acts not just as her lawyer, but as a therapist and friend, and makes sure her leaky ceiling is fixed faster than Reilly or Postlewaite ever would. There are also great performances by Dougray Scott as Dahlia’s litigious ex-husband Kyle, and Camryn Manheim, Ceci’s understandably concerned school teacher, who, unfortunately, doesn’t get a name.
Producer Bill Mechanic said what ultimately makes Dark Water work is that everyone in the cast is, in his words, a “phenomenal actor.” Case in point: Pete Postlethwaite, who took a role with barely any lines and gave Mr. Veeck a grungy Eastern European accent and a whole arsenal of sleazy facial expressions. It’s less of a standard performance and more like a punch in the gut.
While the cast and crew embraced these improvised details, the one thing that had to be meticulously planned was the water itself. Mechanic even called it “one of the lead characters,” since it’s practically in every scene. To create the illusion of constant downpour, the crew used overhead rain rigs, which are basically giant sprinkler bars pouring water in precise, camera-ready sheets. Jennifer Connelly recalled that during the shoot, the cliché came true: the skies actually opened up, and down came a torrential storm, even though that particular scene called for a sunny day.
And if rain wasn’t enough, the movie also had to live up to its title and give us the actual… darkness of the dark water. The crew didn’t only rely on CGI, they used practical means, adding a dark colored dye to water that’s used in soft drinks for coloring. And speaking of soft drinks, in addition to the dye, they used expired and flat soda, which, honestly, tracks. As some of us can attest to, there are few things scarier than a flat soda.
The director seemed to put his actors completely at ease. Sure, the cast was already stacked with talent, but Walter Salles’ style really pulled the best out of them. Tim Roth described him as “a gentle soul” who gives precise notes in private, one-on-one conversations. And apparently those notes were so private that no one else on set had a clue what was being said; for all we know, he was just whispering “don’t screw this up” in Portuguese and walking away. We may never know.
Dark Water sailed into theaters in July 2005, opening with just under $10 million, not fantastic, but still respectable. Speaking of which, the film was released alongside Fantastic Four, while June releases War of the Worlds and Batman Begins were still crushing it, landing it in fourth place on its debut weekend. It finished with about $25 million domestically and pulled in another $42 million overseas, bringing the global total to around $68 million. Not a monster blockbuster, but not a total disaster either, especially against an estimated $30 million budget.
Critically, Dark Water earned a middling 47% on Rotten Tomatoes, and a soggy 28% audience score, while scoring a 5.6/10 on IMDb. The overall consensus is that it’s sold as a horror movie but plays more like a slow-burn domestic drama, albeit one with leaky ceilings instead of genuine scares. Critics and audiences alike agreed it wasn’t exactly terrifying… just watchable enough if you were already stuck indoors on a rainy day. The original, however, got a much warmer reception, with fans praising it as scarier and more emotionally rich. And the endings show why. Spoiler alert for both films: in the 2002 version, daughter Ikuko returns to the old apartment a decade later and shares a bittersweet moment with her mother’s ghost, who reassures her she’ll always be there for her. It’s eerie, moving, and it feels earned. The remake gives us the microwaved version: Ceci gets stuck in an elevator, hears Mom’s voice, and boom: instant closure. Not terrible, just rushed. Like, I’m sure Ceci’s resilient, but I doubt any kid just shrugs off a great loss like that in one elevator ride. Then again, what do I know?
What does hit hard and provides chills is the connection to the real-life case of Elisa Lam. Though the film was released about 8 years prior to Lam’s mysterious death, the similarities are hard to ignore. In the film, Dahlia finds the body of a young girl in a water tank above the building, and it results in the arrest of Mr. Veeck, who knew of her whereabouts and failed to report it. The girl’s body is the reason why the building’s water supply became dark and undrinkable. In 2013, the body of 21-year-old Elisa Lam was found similar to the girl in the story, in the rooftop tank in L.A.’s infamous Cecil Hotel after guests reported foul-tasting, discolored water. There are several articles on the eerie parallels between fact and fiction. And while Dark Water may have otherwise been forgotten, this has definitely given it an unexpected and tragic legacy and a different lens for the public to see it through.
The truth is, Dark Water probably would’ve fared better if it had been sold as a straight drama. At its core, it’s a tear-jerker, the cast really does work magic, and Salles delivers a film that’s strong visually and thematically. The problem is people walked in expecting a horror movie. Critics and audiences were quick to point out that the scares are minimal, the tension is thin, and at nearly two hours, it overstays its welcome by about twenty minutes. But there’s nothing disastrously wrong here, it’s just a case of mismarketing and mismatched expectations. And thanks to its eerie, unintended connection to real-life tragedy, Dark Water ended up leaving a lasting mark that most forgotten remakes never could. In that sense, it rises above the darkness. And that, my friends, is what happened to Dark Water.
A couple of the previous episodes of this show can be seen below. To see more, head over to our JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel – and subscribe while you’re there!
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