10 Horror Film Remakes To Avoid

By Dan Woburn /

3. Dark Water (2005)

J-horror maestro Hideo Nakata's original Dark Water, made in 2002, was an exercise in slow-building tension and creep-out moments rather than 'boo!' scares. Walter Salles, apparently slumming it in remake land after the excellent Motorcycle Diaries, loses all semblance of cultural relevance and significance in his import - as usually happens with remakes of Asian cinema. Where Nakata's use of of long, quiet stretches of little-to-nothing happening helped build the madness brewing inside his protagonist, Salles' take simply runs out of juice and plods along, boring and beige. Jennifer Connelly, a great actress most of the time, is wasted. A twist ending that takes the logic biscuit and throws it out the window doesn't help matters, replacing the original's deservedly super-bleak ending and replacing it with one semi-tragic and irrational.