Dark Water

When horror fiction includes an element of the supernatural, it's natural to assume that the two are inextricably linked. The ghost is there to scare us and the dead return to feed our fear of death. But there's a lot more to fear in life, about which we know plenty, than in death, about which we know nothing. Koji Suzuki may offer ghosts, revenants and haunts in 'Dark Water', but they're strictly on the surface. The true fear is evoked by those glimpses of the depths of human ugliness that he affords with such unpleasant clarity. And this feat is a double-edged sword. We may be afraid to encounter these people, to be sure, but the prospect of being them is far more unsettling.