Horror has come to a new low when its source of fear is centered on murky water coming out of your faucet. I mean, what’s next? A thriller about termites? Despite its omens and destructions, the opaque water in the house is just never enough to make you anxious. And that’s a big strike for a movie called Dark Water.

To be fair though, it’s about more than H2O. This is a ghost story – a “haunted apartment complex” one even. Dahlia (Jennifer Connelly) has just separated from her husband and is moving into a run down New York complex with her daughter Ceci (Ariel Gade). Not long after moving in, they discover there are dead people in the building with issues that need to be resolved. And for some reason, beyond all explanation, they seem to think that causing dark water to come out of the faucets is a way to get people's attention.

Coming from the author of The Ring, Dark Water just doesn’t have the fear factor or the tension that The Ring had – but it does have the cinematography. If nothing else, Dark Water is always a sight to look at. Director Walter Salles casts everything in shades of pale greens and dark yellows. Dark lighting emits tones the blend well with the film’s mood.

A film starts waving a red flag in my face when I realize that my favorite part is also the most senseless. Early in the film, Mr. Murray (John C. Reilly), the apartment superintendent, shows Dahlia and her daughter around the apartment. I’m still not sure what for, the rather lengthy episode is really unnecessary, but Reilly is on top of his game as a quirky manager. It amazes me that this guy can make an apartment showing wholly entertaining – it’s too bad he wasted such performance on such a film.

Dark Water’s biggest problem is that it fails to follow through with any of the themes it begins with. Dahlia suffered abuse from her own mother, a fact which still haunts her and causes enough bad dreams that she has trouble distinguishing fantasy from reality. The film’s conclusions tie things together on a narrative level, but fail to come through on the narrative one. It’s ultimately just a spooky tale that hold no more weight than a campfire story.

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