Halloween 2019: October 10th

Dark Water (2002)

The J-Horror fad of the early 2000s seems like such a very long time ago now, considering the other popular permutations the genre has gone through since then. And I suppose seventeen years is pretty far in the past. In America, the subgenre was kicked off by “The Ring.” And in Japan, this particular thread of horror – usually involving twitchy ghost girls with stringy, long black hair – was largely popularized by that film's Japanese counterpart, Hideo Nakata's “Ringu.” Yet the cinematic adventures of Sadako wasn't Nakata's only significant contribution to this particular movement. “Dark Water” was largely considered the proper follow-up to “Ringu” and made a pretty big splash at the time, though it's not as frequently discussed today.

Yoshimi is currently going through a messy divorce. Her soon-to-be ex-husband is suing for sole custody of their six year old daughter, Ikuko. He's using Yoshimi's history of mental illness as a weapon against her. Mother and daughter move into a new apartment, which she can barely support with her job as a proofreader. She's working so hard to keep the lights on, that she often late picking Ikuko up from school. Soon, she has another disturbance. Mysterious water stains appear from the apartment above her's, a prelude to more torrential leaks. A red bag, belonging to a missing child, keeps reappearing. It soon becomes very clear that the apartment is haunted by the spirit of a dead little girl, who has sinister intentions of her own.

Early on in “Dark Water,” we see a memory from Yoshimi's own childhood. Of her sitting alone at school, waiting for a parent to come pick her up. This is an image reprised more than once with Ikuko, Yoshimi clearly terrified of repeating her own mother's mistakes. As we discover more of the ghost girl haunting the apartment, we never see her with a parent. She's always alone, carrying a little red bag with a white bunny on it – a childish image all the more evocative of the innocence lost – and is all alone when we learn of her death. Eventually, it becomes clear that the ghost girl longs for an attentive, loving mother to replace the one that was never there for her. The ghost haunting “Dark Water” is the spectre of parental neglect, intentional and otherwise, the psychic damage rippling forward through time like water.

Nakata proved more-than-capable of building suspense and a feeling of unease in “Ringu.” He pulls off the same trick here. The apartment setting is dreary, all the rooms seemingly painted in shades of gray and brown. The constantly leaking water from above certainly adds to the downbeat atmosphere. Using an endangered child as a source of tension, which he also did in “Ringu,” might seem like a cheap tactic. But it definitely works, as we see Ikuko drawn more and more into the ghost's clutches. The slow reveal of the details surrounding the girl's death pull you in, making you ready for a number of hugely effective jump scares. One, involving hands appearing from the inside of a water tank, works very well despite some misplaced CGI. The scariest scene in the movie, a corpse suddenly lunging forward, doesn't have that problem at all. It's a real shocker.

Perhaps another reason “Dark Water” works as well as it does is because of its deeply empathetic lead performance. Hitomi Kuroki plays Yoshimi as a woman barely holding on. She claims her time spent in a mental institute was because she was traumatized by the graphic content she had to read at work. But it's pretty clear a childhood of abuse and a loveless marriage took its toll. She is desperate to keep afloat, working hard at a job that gives her little respect. What frightens her even more is the prospect of loosing her child, which drives her totally into a nervous breakdown. Kuroki does a fantastic job of conveying this fractured state of mind, without ever overplaying it. Rio Kanno is also extremely good as the daughter, especially for a six year old kid.

Considering “Dark Water” also features a landlord totally ambivalent to the misery of his tenants, the story has certain other economical layers. The film is as sad as it is scary, a sense of melancholy deeply infecting its tale of daughters forgotten by their mothers. The film nails that home a little too hard with an extended prologue, though it's nice that Nakata was so committed to the emotional core of his story. Though I haven't seen it, I kind of doubt the American remake from 2005 is so open and honest. While not quite the succession of creepiness that was “Ringu,” “Dark Water” is a fantastically effective ghost story. [8/10]

A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Dream Child (1989)

After the box office success of “A Nightmare on Elm Street 4,” New Line Cinema obviously wasn't going to let Freddy Krueger rest for long. The very next year, the Bastard Son of a 1000 Maniacs would make his way back to theater screens in “A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Dream Child.” The premise for part five would go back to an earlier idea considered for a “Elm Street” sequel. It was executive producer Sara Risher, around the time of part two, that first suggested the idea of Freddy Krueger having a baby. The premise was revived, a script was quickly written, a director soon found – Stephen Hopkins, previously of Australian slasher flick “Dangerous Game” – and the film rolled into production.

“The Dream Child's” story – final girl Alice gets pregnant, Freddy using the unborn child to re-enter the dreams of Springwood's teens – brings with it some disturbing connotations. See, from the moment Alice's child is conceived, Freddy can exploit its energy. In her dreams, Alice meets the spirit of the child she hasn't had yet, the boy even picking out his own name. The fetus is outright described as having a soul. It's unavoidable: “A Nightmare on Elm Street 5” is explicitly pro-life. Alice is asked if she'll have an abortion and, even though it would cut off Freddy's connection to the dream world and save her friends' lives, she refuses. And the film is completely disinterested in exploring the option any further. At the very least, this is a controversial idea to insert into a slasher movie sequel. At worst, it's a premise a goofy horror movie like this is in no way prepared to handled.

But “The Dream Child” doesn't stop there.  It also presents the idea that a woman has absolutely no say in her own fate once she has a child. Throughout the film, Freddy is being pursued by the spirit of his dead mother. Being Freddy's mother is presented as a curse Amanda Krueger must struggle with, even after she's dead. Even though the circumstances of his birth and life are not her fault. (Which the opening flashback/dream, depicting the fateful day Amanda was locked in at the lunatic asylum, makes sure to clarify.) It is somehow her job to control her murderous son, which she gave up for adoption. Meanwhile, Alice's entire destiny is redirected around being Jacob's mother. I don't think the writers and filmmakers behind “The Dream Child” were making a puritanical, fairly sexist statement about women and the right for them to control their own bodies. I think the script was just rushed and not well thought out.

But none of this is what “The Dream Child” is really about. From the moment Freddy Krueger slithers on-screen – as a wrinkly-faced monster baby that is presumably not meant to be canon – he is cracking the cheesiest puns imaginable. In the first proper nightmare sequence, where Alice's baby daddy is killed off, literally every line of dialogue out of Freddy's mouth is another broad, goofy one-liner. While there is a certain joy to be had here – watching Robert Englund ham it up will never not be fun – the sequel seriously pushes it too far. This cornball, comedic streak is extended into the film's murder sequence. The visceral gore of the original “Nightmare” has given way to Freddy dressing up as a chef or turning into a superhero, force-feeding a victim red slime or turning them into a slashed-up comic book.

Seeing so many outrageous, goofy nightmare sequences eventually has a tiring, numbing effect on the audience. Certainly not helping matters is the film revolving around another group of indistinct, uninteresting teenager. Much like Alice's first batch of friends in “The Dream Master,” each of her new buddies here are given an easily understood hobby. Yvonne is a swimmer and diver. Greta's parents are pushing her to become a model, creating a budding eating disorder in the teen girl. Mark is a comic book nerd who draws his own hyper-violent superhero adventures, despite his phobia of blood. If these seem like real personalities, don't be fool. These identifying traits are set up early, so that Freddy can later twist them into murderous nightmares. If you are an Alice fan, you probably won't care for these kids either, as none of them believe her at first, leading to their own demises.

As with “The Dream Master,” a punning Freddy, a shaky script, and uninteresting characters only leaves two things to interest viewers: The production design and special effects. Both of which are excellent. The various nightmare worlds Freddy creates this time look fantastic. Such as the blasted-out cathedral he's reborn in or the hallways of a mental hospital that look more like a haunted castle. My favorite is the monochrome comic book world that makes up Mark's world. The special effects create a number of unforgettable images. Such as Freddy with asymmetrical, long limbs. Or Alice and Freddy's bodies fusing together and then splitting apart. Or, my favorite scene in the entire movie, when Freddy fuses Dan – Alice's hunk-of-meat jocko boyfriend – with a motorcycle, creating a “Tetsuo”-esque man/machine monstrosity. Director Hopkins generally has a good eye, such as the M.C. Escher homage in the last act. (Amusingly, the same year's “Labyrinth” would feature a very similar gag.)

“The Dream Child” was still inarguable a box office success. Director Hopkins would ride that success to further genre credits, like “Predator 2,” “The Ghost and the Darkness,” and “Lost in Space.” It grossed over 22 million against a 6 million dollar budget. However, that was a considerable drop from the last two films. “A Nightmare on Elm Street 5” would become the lowest grossing entry in the series, up to that point. It would seem, after two years of overexposure, Freddy-Mania was officially over. Like all the “Nightmare” movies, “Dream Child” has its defenders but the film is not much of a favorite among fans either. It's among the least enjoyable Freddy Krueger films, half-baked and too self-satisfied with its own goofiness. [5/10]

Tales from the Cryptkeeper: So Very Attractive

Here's an episode of “Tales from the Cryptkeeper” that doesn't even bother to include a goofy pun in its title. Julia is an outcast at school, with only one friend. She's especially envious of the popular, beautiful but bitchy girls at school and compares herself to the women in beauty magazines. That's when she stops in at a make-up shop she thought was closed. Inside, the Cryptkeeper sells her a special facial cream. The goop makes Julia prettier. In fact, it makes her so attractive that everything around her – her classmates, adults, animals, insects, even planet life – are obsessively attracted towards her.

Most of the kids in season three of “Tales from the Cryptkeeper” have done something that deserves to be punished, as minor as the infractions tend to be. Julia, as far as I can tell, is just a lonely girl with body dysmorphia. She obsesses over impossible standards of beauty and thinks she's not good enough. (Despite the flat animation style making her look like everyone else and having a male friend that clearly has a crush on her.) Her only selfish or mean action is snubbing that old friend, in order to hang out with the popular kids. And even that is pretty relaxed. The episode's moral doesn't end up being “believe in yourself,” “society puts too much pressure on teen girls to measure up to ridiculous measurements,” or “treat your friends well.” It ends up being... Nice girls don't wear make-up? That's a pretty fucked-up message to send to young girls.

Beyond that, as a horror episode, “So Very Attractive” doesn't contribute much. Being a half-hour of children's television, the show in no way addresses the implications of everyone – including grown-ups – being uncontrollably attracted to a pre-teen girl. There's two mildly clever touches here. A swarm of flies, drawn to Julia, blots out the sun outside her window. Later, corpses are awoken from their graves due to the power of the magical face cream. A scene where she awakens to see her bedroom ceiling covered with spiders and maggots might've been a real squirmer if the animation style here wasn't so unexpressive and lame. [5/10]

Forever Knight: Beyond the Law

The “Forever Knight” writers must have watched “Lethal Weapon 2” about this point, because here's an episode about a villain with diplomatic immunity. Another serial killer is operating in Toronto. Women are being picked up from singles clubs, taken to hotels, and then strangled to death. One of the victims was wearing a pearl necklace, with a clasp made in Kazakhstan. This causes Nick and Schanke to suspect the Kazakhstanian ambassador, currently in the city. However, he has diplomatic immunity so the cops can't search any further into this lead. While Nick considers going outside the boundaries of the law, he recalls a time in the sixties when a politician he trusted was caught abusing his powers against a female aide.

“Beyond the Law” opens with a surprisingly explicit scene of a woman in a negligee being brutally strangled. Despite this dark opening, the episode then heads in a largely comedic direction. The female forensic scientist has a thing for married men and is currently pursuing Schanke. The married and devoted Schanke, of course, feels guilty about even looking at another woman. His discomfort is amusing. There's also a comedic scene where Nick interviews an odd witness who doesn't seem to differentiate between her husband and her dog. Weirdly, the rest of the episode is relatively serious, ending with yet another shoot-out in a night club and a foot chase. The flashbacks aren't much to write about, aside from a line LaCroix has about a “benevolent monarchy, with occasional assassinations” being the best form of government. [6/10]