When "Dark Water" opens, we see a young girl standing outside after school in the rain, waiting for her mother, who has yet to show up.
Flash forward to 2005, we see a grown up Dahlia in the midst of a bitter mediation with her ex-husband over sharing custody of their daughter, Cecilia, aka Ceci. The father, Kyle, wants Ceci to live closer to his apartment so the share custody can go more smoothly, but Dahlia wants to move to an island off Manhattan, where she has found a good school for Ceci. Kyle threatens to sue for full custody because he feels the distance to see his daughter is too great. He states that Dahlia is an unfit mother due to the fact that she was abused by her father and abandon by her mother at a young age. He also claims that Dahlia is mentally unstable and suffers from debilitating migraines, though Dahlia insists the migraines are not that bad.
Dahlia and Ceci goes to see an apartment in a complex near the school. The super, Veeck seems aloof and creepy, and the manager, Mr. Murray, uses questionable tactics in order to rent the substandard, small apartment. Ceci sneaks up onto the roof where she finds a Hello Kitty book bag near the water tank. The bag is left with Veeck w/ the promise the Ceci can have it if no one claims it in a week. Ceci, who has disliked the apartment from the moment she arrived, now wants desperately to live there. Dahlia agrees and the move in.
Shortly after moving in, the ceiling in the bedroom begins to leak dark water. The source is the apartment above, 10F, where a family, the Ramseys, lived up until a month ago. Since then, two teens have reportedly been vandalizing the apartment. At one point, Dahlia enters 10F and finds the place flooded, with dark water flowing from every faucet in the apartment and from the walls and toilet. Dahlia finds a family portrait of the former tenants. There is a mother, father, and young girl that bears an uncanny resemblance to Ceci/young Dahlia. Dahlia complains to both Veeck and Murray about the water, but neither does anything about it.
Ceci has started school, but according to her new teacher, isn’t fitting in and is spending too much time with an imaginary friend, named Natasha. A psychologist is recommended, but Dahlia refuses and tells Ceci to ignore Natasha. This is made more difficult when the Hello Kitty book bag, which Veeck said was claimed but was actually thrown in the garbage, ends up in Ceci’s hands. The name in the book bag is “Natasha Ramsey”.
Things get worse after that. The ceiling, shoddily patched up by Veeck, begins to leak heavily. Ceci appears to get into a fight with Natasha and passes out in the girls’ bathroom after dark water starts pouring from the toilets and sinks and Natasha confronts Ceci in a stall. Dahlia, who is meeting with her lawyer, can’t be reached at work, so Kyle picks her up from the hospital and takes her to his apartment, without telling Dahlia.
Dahlia breaks down when she can’t find her daughter and begins having strange dreams. These lead her back onto the roof and onto the water tank. She looks inside and finds Natasha’s body in there. When the police arrive, it is discovered that there was a grave miscommunication between the Ramseys; the father thought that Natasha was with her mother while the mother thought the girl was with her father. The girl was left alone in the abandoned apartment and stumbled into the water tank, which Veeck had left open. He was aware of her body and that was why he refused to fix the water problem plaguing the complex. Veeck is arrested and Murray falls under suspicion.
It appears everything will get better. Dahlia agrees to move closer to Kyle so the shared custody will go easier. As Dahlia is packing Ceci is taking a bath. A girl in a bathrobe comes out of the bathroom, but it isn’t Ceci, it’s Natasha, who begs Dahlia not to leave her. Natasha then locks Ceci in the bathroom and begins to drown her. Dahlia pleads with the girl ghost and promises to be her mother forever. Natasha lets Ceci go, and in the next shot, Dahlia is seen on the bathroom floor, dead. Her ghost and that of Natasha walks down the hallway.
Kyle picks up a traumatized Ceci from the hospital, and weeks later, the two go back to pick up the rest of her stuff. Ceci hears her mother talking to Natasha, and in the elevator, her mother’s ghost comforts her, telling her she will always be there. Ceci leaves the apartment in a better mood.
Plot summary compliments of Wikipedia.
The film is a remake of the 2002 Japanese film of the same name, and also stars John C. Reilly, Tim Roth, Perla Haney-Jardine of Kill Bill: Volume 2 (2004) fame and Ariel Gade.
Dark Water the movie is based on the short story, Floating Water, from the Koji Suzuki horror anthology Honogurai mizu no soko kara.
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