'Water' drips with anxiety

Dark Water is a deeply spooky remake of the profoundly spooky 2002 Japanese thriller from the folks who made The Ring. Starring the pale and haunted Jennifer Connelly as Dahlia, the film chronicles a single mom battling demons of the domestic, mental and ghostly kind.

In the practiced hands of Motorcyle Diaries director Walter Salles, Dark Water pushes every button on the parental-fear keypad: Divorce, loss of custody, loss of child, loss of domicile, loss of mind. Salles doesn't tap a horror gusher, but trickles a steady panic drip. While his movie lacks the psychological resonance of Rosemary's Baby or The Sixth Sense, it easily equals their creep-out quotient.

Since Dahlia's husband bolted, her life has been a nonstop custody battle and house hunt. Both estranged spouses want Ceci (Ariel Gade), a saucer-eyed cutie who is unusually alert to the paranormal. And both need affordable apartments.

While the hubby, Kyle (Dougray Scott), relocates from Manhattan to Jersey City, Dahlia and daughter opt for Roosevelt Island. In a Brutalist high-rise with a smarmy manager (John C. Reilly), a creepy janitor (Pete Postlethwaite), and an elevator that pays unscheduled visits to other floors, Dahlia rents what may be the most forlorn apartment in the five boroughs.

While I don't usually buy the haunted-house premise, I bought it this time: Dahlia signed the lease because the apartment was Manhattan-adjacent for $900 a month. And she signed because it looked so familiar. Like Dahlia, the apartment is abandoned. Like her, it weeps. And like her, it is held together with rubber bands and concealer.

But a fresh coat of paint can't mask the fluid seeping from the ceiling, disturbing Dahlia's fitful sleep. The color and consistency of sludge, the liquid might be dirty water from the unceasing rain outside, sewage from the bathroom in the abandoned apartment upstairs, or a figment of Dahlia's fevered imagination.

American remakes of what the fan boys call "J-horror" typically do not boast such overqualified casts. (Salles' lineup also includes Camryn Manheim as Ceci's teacher and Tim Roth as Dahlia's lawyer.)

Connelly and Gade bring such tenderness to the mother-daughter sequences that it intensifies the horror. Because we've bonded with Dahlia as she bonds with her child, when they are in jeopardy, the film feels less like a mechanism to wring anxiety and more like a drama.

The film's third act, alas, is murkier than the substance of the film's title. Salles and screenwriter Rafael Yglesias answer the multiple-choice question raised in their thriller with the all-purpose "all of the above."

Fan notes: We last saw the lovely and fragile Connelly being evicted from the House of Sand and Fog. Now her apartment is bleeding this Dark Water. Someone should find this gal a new agent. It's unclear whether she's in greater need of a real-estate broker or of a talent type. What is clear is that she needs a break from haunted husbands (A Beautiful Mind, The Hulk) and haunted houses.

Contact movie critic Carrie Rickey

at 215-854-5402 or crickey@phillynews.com.

Read her recent work at http://go.philly.com/carrierickey.

Dark Water

** 1/2 (out of four stars)

Produced by Doug Davison, Roy Lee and Bill Mechanic, directed by Walter Salles, written by Rafael Yglesias, based on the Japanese novel and 2002 film, photography by Affonso Beato, music by Angelo Badalamenti, distributed by Buena Vista Pictures.

Running time: 1 hour, 43 mins.

Dahlia. . . Jennifer Connelly

Mr. Murray. . . John C. Reilly

Ceci......................................Ariel Gade

Veeck. . . Pete Postlethwaite

Kyle. . . Dougray Scott

Parent's guide: PG-13 (disturbing images, mature themes, child in jeopardy)

Playing at: area theaters