12 Foreign Films That Show Hollywood How A Genre Film Should Be Done
10. Dark Water
Country: Japan
Genre: Horror
Plot: A mother and daughter make a very bad moving decision when they end up in an apartment full of water and haunted by a ghost.
The most underrated film on this list, this is a J Horror film by Hideo 'Ring' Nakata. While the film is predictable at times, it is a very chilling horror film and the creep factor goes through the roof.
We all know how Hollywood does ghost stories: jump scares, screaming, predictable twists and no emotion whatsoever. There are exceptions, but they are rarities. Dark Water, on the other hand, is pretty much a fool-proof ghost story. Filled with haunting cinematography, excruciating build-up and genuinely unnerving (but intelligently restrained) scares, not to mention a very moving story, Dark Water is what a horror film should be.
It's a film which uses the horror genre to explore our deepest fears and tell memorable stories, instead of using it for the laughably bad games of "Peekaboo!" most supernatural horror films now are. This is easily one of the overlooked horror classics of the 2000s.
Remake?
Yes. It's a Japanese horror film so what did you expect? So, they transported it to America, despite being a specifically Japanese ghost story corresponding to Japanese culture and symbolism... and it didn't work out. It's not one of the worst horror remakes, but it's got nothing on the original either.