Hideo Nakata

Yoshimi (Hitomi Kuroki) is going through a messy divorce from her husband, Kunio Hamada (Fumiyo Kohinata) and along with her daughter, Ikuko (Rio Kanno) is forced to find accommodation in a run-down apartment block. Soon after moving in their flat develops a water leak and Yoshimi begins to catch glimpses of a dark-haired, oilskin clad girl. She also learns about the mysterious disappearance of a young girl from their block – and all the while the water dripping into their flat slowly increases in intensity. “Honogurai Mizu No Soko Kara” is a masterclass in slow burn dynamics by director Hideo Nakata. He grounds his film and lead character Yoshimi in a very a grinding everyday reality of divorce, single parenting, job-hunting and day-to-day humiliations. This cleverly builds sympathy and concern for Yoshimi and makes the horror more biting as it slowly develops. Nakata’s approach is painstaking, with the horrors implied and suggested for the majority of the film. He creates an atmosphere of dread and claustrophobia and cleverly uses elements such as the corridors of the dingy block of flats and constant dripping, leaking water to exacerbate the effect. Hitomi Kuroki is first class in the lead role, appropriately panicked and neurotic and with enough oddness and paranoia about her to make her mindset questionable from the outset. Rio Kanno is perfectly cute and effective in an, at times, challenging role as put-upon daughter Ikuko. Overall “Honogurai Mizu No Soko Kara” takes the occasional misstep and the midsection becomes occasionally repetitive, but on the whole this is a highly effective supernatural chiller that earns it scares through skilled filmmaking rather than cheap jump scares.… (more)