A cold, rainy day in Philadelphia was an eerily appropriate setting for a screening of Dark Water, the latest film from director Hideo Nakata. His 1998 smash hit Ring brought back textbook scares to the current Japanese horror scene, while its American remake is still spooking teenagers out of their minds. With Dark Water, Nakata isn't necessarily pushing the envelope with technique or subject matter, but that doesn't stop the film from telling a suspenseful and heart-wrenching story. Imagine trying to live in a world where the most basic element of life, water, was against you, and you can begin to see just how unsettling this film can be at times.

Dark Water opens with a standard custody battle between working mother Yoshimi and her disingenuous ex-husband. She is trying very hard to raise six-year-old daughter Ikuko, though apartment- and job-hunting duties often cause Yoshimi to be late in picking her up from school. Early on the importance of the bond between mother and daughter is made quite clear through a series of charming little exchanges. Yoshimi and Ikuko investigate a possible apartment together, and though the building is run-down and filled with plumbing problems they choose to move in. This place is creepy during the daytime, so you can imagine how menacing it becomes at night.

While investigating the roof of the apartment building, Ikuko comes across a red backpack that she surmises must belong to one of the other children in the complex. Slightly off put to learn that there are no kids in the building, Yoshimi leaves with Ikuko and prepares to move in. Things go smoothly until she notices a rather innocuous water stain on the ceiling that is leaking water. Meanwhile, Ikuko begins attending a new kindergarten and quickly has a nasty experience with a little girl in a yellow raincoat. Yoshimi is increasingly haunted by visions of the same ghostly little girl, as well as the unnerving appearances of the little red bag everywhere she looks.

The water stains in the apartment continue to grow like a cancer, and water is steadily eroding away the sanity of poor Yoshimi. This, coupled with the sleazy legal tactics of her ex-husband, cause her to slowly lose her grip on reality, and her custody of Ikuko is now in doubt. All seems lost until she meets a kind, handsome lawyer by the name of Kishida, who promptly instills some stability in her life. He shores up the case against her ex-husband and gets the apartment building to rectify the problems with the water. At least, temporarily. Water is an extremely powerful force, and in Dark Water it seems to have a rather nasty streak.

Dark Water is a classic ghost story that eschews exploitative elements in favor of old-fashioned psychological scare tactics. The film unfolds at a slow, methodical pace that allows the viewer ample time to identify with its characters. Nakata makes effective use of the locations in and around the apartment complex to slowly build a menacing atmosphere. The many scenes involving the hallways, elevators and stairwells of the decrepit building provide a suitably creepy backdrop for the unsettling events that unfold. Familiar elements, like the backpack, the building, and especially the water itself become twisted, bastardized versions of themselves and are used quite well by Nakata to unnerve the viewer.

With few sets and sparse visual effects, Dark Water is carried primarily on the strength of its core actors. The plain-but-pretty Hitomi Kuroki brings warmth and gentleness to the character of Yoshimi, and portrays her slow mental deterioration quite effectively. Her relationship with Ikuku (the adorable Rio Kanno) is a pleasure to watch, and the film's climactic events are even harder to digest because of it. The water itself becomes a major character and is one of the biggest reasons the film is so effective. There's nothing really shocking or gruesome in Dark Water, and certainly nothing you haven't seen before, but the setting, atmosphere and creepy events still work.

Yoshimi is genuinely torn whenever she has to leave Ikuko (even if only for a minute or two), but she seems to do this on a far too frequent basis. We later find out the reasons for this in a series of flashbacks and some truly heart-wrenching scenes in the apartment building. I might not have made this clear in earlier reviews, but scenes involving physical or psychological harm to little kids really upset me. I'm no sentimental sap, but it was difficult to watch little Ikuko lying on the floor soaking wet, wailing for her mother. The scene struck a chord with me, even if its setup was a blatant recreation of something from The Shining. ("Hmm, that's odd. The dark water usually gets off at the second floor.")

While the film is generally engaging and a little scary, it borrows a bit too liberally from other films of its type (including Ring) and doesn't really offer anything novel. That is fine in and of itself, but many of the setups and scare points are tired and predictable because of it. During many of the slow zooming and panning shots it is quite clear where the scene is leading and what the outcome will be. The "twist" can be deduced long before the scene actually arrives, and the climactic events are way too obvious to scare the way the director intended. The film affected me more due to its heart-breaking story of family separation than any of the macabre events it portrayed.

Ultimately I enjoyed Dark Water despite the aforementioned problems. There has been perhaps a little bit too much buildup for the film (understandable considering Nakata's past efforts), which may have worked to undermine its effect. If you're expecting too see another breakthrough like Ring you'll likely be disappointed, but with the proper frame of mind there is still a lot to like about Dark Water. The deliberate pacing, effectively creepy locations and disquieting use of water as a menacing character all make the film a worthwhile endeavor.

Thumbs Up. Despite some obvious setups and predictable scares, Dark Water still manages to deliver a chilling, affecting viewing experience.