Dark Water received a lukewarm reaction from the public for good reason. While there’s plenty of spooky atmosphere, it disappoints in the hair-raising suspense department as well as the surprise factor. Despite this, I enjoyed the movie for what it had to offer. I especially liked where they chose the setting, in a seedy apartment near New York City.

Jennifer Connelly did a great job of portraying Dahlia Williams, a newly divorced mother with a lot of emotional baggage. Dahlia and her daughter, Ceci, move into a cramped rundown apartment on Roosevelt Island to start a new life. Dahlia’s soon-to-be-ex is not making life easy for her. She’s taking prescription pills for her migraines, but the constant flashbacks of scenes with her alcoholic mother haunt her to the point where we wonder if she isn’t losing her mind.

Mysterious noises and leaks come from the upstairs apartment, which she discovers was abandoned by its tenants. If that weren’t enough, Ceci begins to talk to an imaginary friend named Natasha. This friend sends Dahlia on a mission to find out if her estranged husband is playing mind games.

The movie ends on a satisfactory, if not sad, note.

I’m old enough to remember watching this movie in the theater and feeling a bit of awe at watching a Winnebago fly through the air. The art of special effects hadn’t quite taken hold back then, but it was enough to impress people of that generation. Disney announced that it is in the process of remaking this classic to modernize it for the latest generation.

The biggest question I have is will these kids be impressed, after watching Star Wars and Harry Potter? I’ll be watching the public reaction once this film hits the theaters.

Source: Flick Direct

I disagree with David Germain’s “low rent” version of The Shining (see prior post). This movie stands alone on its own merits. While The Shining relied on gore and violence, 1408 is psychological horror at its best.

John Cusack performed beautifully as Mike Enslin, a troubled writer who writes books about haunted hotels despite the fact that he’s a skeptic of the paranormal. “Nothing would make me happier than to experience a paranormal event, to catch a glimpse of the light at the end of the tunnel,” he said to a meager group of fans.

He gets his wish, and then some, when he enters Room 1408 inside the Dolphin hotel. The special effects were very typical of a Stephen King movie. According to the hotel manager (played by Samuel L. Jackson), 56 people had died in that room. Yet, I saw only four of the ghosts.

The evil essence (or whatever you’d like to call it) picked Mike’s brain and tortured him with the memories of his deceased daughter and father. At first, he denies the ghosts as hallucinations, blaming the manager for poisoning the liquor he had taken up to his room. The hauntings escalate until he decides to check out. Only the room won’t let him.

His situation gets scarier and weirder as time goes on. In one scene, we think he’s escaped, only to watch him get plunged right back into that nightmarish room. The ending was a bit rushed and pat. That, I agreed with. Despite the weak ending, this was a good movie. I’m looking forward to adding the DVD to my Stephen King movie collection.

For those of you who haven’t heard about the movie yet, I’ll give you the gist. John Cusack plays a man who, after losing his daughter, becomes obsessed with debunking the paranormal. He receives a postcard from the Dolphin Hotel (which is notoriously haunted) with a message that reads, “Don’t enter 1408.”

Naturally, he does.

1408 was dubbed the “low rent of The Shining” by David Germain of Associated Press, but he said that the movie was saved by the stellar performances of John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson. I’ve been anxiously awaiting to see this movie since I first saw the movie trailers back in January.