Dark Water 'Honogurai mizu no soko kara' (2002) - ★★★★★

Director: Hideo Nakata
Writers: Ken'Ichi Suzuki, Yoshihiro Nakamura
Stars: Hitomi Kuroki, Rio Kanno, Mirei Oguchi, Asami Mizukawa

I found Dark Water to be one of the most tragic, beautiful, most well-made horror films I've ever seen. Sure, it has some horrifying moments and brilliant suspense building techniques. What makes it stick in my mind, and makes me so damn emotional, is the story... the answer to the mystery of the film... the resolution to end the haunting. It contains two of the greatest performances I've ever seen in a horror film by Hitomi Kuroki and the young Rio Kanno. They felt like real people, which made the story feel real, which made me connect to them as human beings. Don't get me wrong, this film is damn scary. It takes a while to build up to the climax, but the climax is so damn exceptional that I can forgive the pace. I adore horror films that journey further than their genre, and add an extra layer of depth in the story. That ending for me... the whole story... was beautiful.

The Incite Mill (2010) - ★½

Director: Hideo Nakata
Writers: Honobu Yonezawa (Novel), Satoshi Suzuki (Screenplay)
Stars: If you really want to know, click HERE.

The Incite Mill was such a draining experience for me. The characters were all stupid, annoying, irrational and completely unbelievable. This directly resulted in the whole story becoming a catastrophic mess, which is sad because it had potential. Perhaps the worst thing of all was the excruciatingly terrible performances by most of the cast. It's like Hideo Nakata wanted this to be like an Agatha Christie novel (albeit way more radical), but it lacked the wit and the suspense of most basic mysteries. I think it took about an hour before it became painful to watch. (Also, I swear I've seen the exact same story before. I can't quite put my finger on it).