Is Dark Water Scary? The Verdict and the Whole Plot
Yes, 5 out of 10. It's a slow ghost story about a leaking ceiling, with very little to jump at.
🐱THE SCARE SIGNAL
SCARE SCORE
5 /10
🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱
DREAD LEVEL
Medium
You may glance at your own ceiling for a few nights.
DOG
Dog: fine
fine, no dog dies.
Ruling: It has very little to jump at, so it suits anyone who can handle a slow ghost story.
Dark Water runs 101 minutes and starts with a woman in the middle of a divorce renting a rundown apartment. The ceiling leaks, and the superintendent does nothing about any complaint.
The premise, briefly
A woman in the middle of a divorce moves into a rundown apartment with her young daughter, where the ceiling leaks, a red schoolbag keeps coming back, and the superintendent ignores all of it.
How much do you want to know?
🐱
The verdict above is spoiler-free. Everything below, including the ending, stays hidden until you pick a depth.
🐱CUT TO THE CHASE
How it ends
Yoshimi sacrifices herself in an elevator to appease the ghost of Mitsuko. Ten years later, a teenage Ikuko visits the empty building and meets her mother's spirit, who tells her she is content as long as Ikuko is fine.
The scene you're dreading
Near the end, Yoshimi carries Ikuko into the elevator with a figure chasing them. A decayed Mitsuko clings to Yoshimi and will not let go, and the elevator then bursts open with a rush of water, and Ikuko is knocked to the floor.
The dog
No dog dies in Dark Water, and no other animal does either.
Dark Water is mainly a sad story about a mother and her daughter with a ghost in the plumbing, and the ending is the part that hurts.
THE SHORT VERSION IS HIDDEN
How it ends, the scene you're dreading, what happens to the dog, and the bottom line. About twenty seconds to read.
What actually happens
A tenant's guide to being ignored by a superintendent
Yoshimi Matsubara is divorcing her husband, Kunio Hamada, and the split is ugly, with the two of them fighting over custody of Ikuko, who is six. Yoshimi rents a rundown apartment, enrolls Ikuko at a nearby kindergarten, and takes a job as a proofreader at a small publisher. The ceiling leaks, and each complaint to the superintendent, Kamiya, gets her nowhere. Then strange things start to turn up. A child's red schoolbag comes back no matter how many times she throws it away, and she catches glimpses of a little girl. These moments remind her of being left behind at kindergarten as a child, which the movie shows in flashbacks. A missing person photo shows a girl in a yellow raincoat with a red schoolbag. Her name is Mitsuko Kawai, she vanished a year earlier, and she lived in the empty unit directly above Yoshimi's.
One day Yoshimi finds Ikuko in the empty apartment upstairs, where the taps have been left running and the whole unit is flooded. Her lawyer talks to Kamiya, who at last agrees to fix the leak, and for a while things look normal again, until the red schoolbag turns up once more. On the roof, Yoshimi sees that nobody has opened or inspected the water tank in over a year, shortly before Mitsuko disappeared. Then Yoshimi has a vision of what happened: Mitsuko fell into the tank while reaching for her schoolbag and drowned there. Back in the apartment, meanwhile, Mitsuko's ghost tries to drown Ikuko in the bathtub. Yoshimi hurries back to the apartment and picks up the unconscious Ikuko.
The elevator and its flood
This is the scene people dread, and it comes near the end. Yoshimi grabs the unconscious Ikuko and runs for the elevator, with a figure chasing them. As the doors close, she sees that the figure is Ikuko, who has been carrying Mitsuko the whole time. A decayed Mitsuko clings to Yoshimi, and Yoshimi understands that she will not let go. Ikuko cries and begs her mother to come back, but Yoshimi sacrifices herself to appease Mitsuko. The elevator rises with the two of them in it and then bursts open with a rush of water, and Ikuko is knocked to the floor. Yoshimi does not come back. What you see is a decayed child and a lot of water.
The ending, explained
A decade later, Ikuko is sixteen and lives with her father. She returns to the abandoned apartment block and finds that her old apartment looks oddly clean. There she sees Yoshimi, who looks exactly as she did ten years earlier, and asks why nobody told her that her mother lived close by. Yoshimi says sorry that they cannot be together and says she is content as long as Ikuko is fine. Mitsuko appears briefly. Then both spirits disappear, and Ikuko understands that her mother has been looking out for her all along.
The post-credits ruling
Nobody has confirmed whether there is a scene after the credits.
✓ Spoiled safelyDog status: fine, no dog dies.
Questions people ask at 1am
Is Dark Water scary?
Yes, a little. Dark Water is a 5 out of 10 with medium dread: a slow ghost story with very little gore and not much to jump at.
How does Dark Water end?
Yoshimi gives up her life in an elevator so that Mitsuko's ghost will leave Ikuko alone. Ten years later, Ikuko visits the empty building and meets her mother's spirit.
Does the dog die in Dark Water?
No dog dies in Dark Water, and no other animal does either.
Is there a post-credits scene in Dark Water?
Nobody has confirmed whether Dark Water has a scene after the credits.
Who is the little girl in Dark Water?
She is Mitsuko Kawai, a girl who went missing a year earlier. In Dark Water she fell into the rooftop water tank while reaching for her red schoolbag and drowned there.
BLURRED FOR YOUR PROTECTION
The whole plot of Dark Water is hidden, ending included. It stays that way until you ask.
You don't need to sit through 101 minutes of dripping to find out how Dark Water ends. Install Scaredy Cat and it blurs horror before you see it.
