The 2002 J-horror that eerily predicted viral tragedy a decade later

Does art imitate life? Or is it the other way around? If there's one genre of art that no one wants to emulate in their life, it's horror. Especially when this kind of horror is as scary and disturbing as the one from 2002 Dark water. But in 2013 a tragic death occurred that was eerily reminiscent of him Hideo Nakatais the J-Horror classic. Dark water and the real-life tragedy of Elisa Lam bear striking similarities that left conspiracy theorists scratching their heads as the details of Lam's death emerged. Dark water is a classic in the J-Horror ghost story genre, and the case of Elisa Lam is as spooky and disturbing as any fictional story.

Koji Suzuki's chilling short story comes to life in “Dark Water.”

Dark water began life as a short story called Floating water in a collection of stories by Koji Suzuki. Suzuki is a prolific author in Japanese horror and wrote the hugely popular novel ring Series with more than a dozen film adaptations of his works. Dark water was taken over by director Hideo Nakata, who also directed the hugely influential Suzuki adaptation Ringu in 1998. The details of Dark waterElisa Lam's story needs to be discussed to understand the strange similarities to Elisa Lam's death, so a massive spoiler alert is in order. In case someone reads it who hasn't seen it Dark water and happens to love scary ghost movies, check it out and come right back!

The film is about the mother-daughter duo Yoshimi and Ikuko Matsubara, played by Hitomi Kuroki And Rio Kanno respectively. The couple have just moved into a new apartment together after a messy divorce, while six-year-old Ikuko starts at a local kindergarten down the street. The first signs of trouble start with a water leak in the ceiling, which continues to get worse without the help of the building owners. In addition to the leak, Yoshimi begins experiencing strange events in the apartment, such as the sight of a dark-haired girl who may or may not be realand constantly having to throw away a red bag because it keeps reappearing. The film does a great job of portraying Yoshimi's increasing stress as she deals with her ex-husband's continued attempts to take Ikuko away from her, which is made worse by the increasingly frequent occurrence of supernatural events. Eventually, Yoshimi discovers that the apartment above hers was once occupied by a little girl named Mitsuko Kawai, and sees a missing person's photo in which the girl is wearing a yellow raincoat and carrying a red bag.

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As the leak worsens, the supernatural events become more frequent and dangerous. The building manager even repairs the leak, but it doesn't help. Finally, Yoshimi has a vision of Mitsuko drowning in the water tank on the roof of the building after falling in while trying to retrieve her red bag. All along, it was the restless ghost of a drowned little girl that was bothering the Matsubaras, and in the film's final act the same ghost tries to drown Ikuko. It's a sad, scary and overall horrifying story, but not without heart and emotion. It deftly tackles themes of parenthood, abandonment, and the terrible but beautiful sacrifices mothers make for their children. As powerful and convincing as Dark water Of course, maybe no one wants to experience it in real life.

What happened to Elisa Lam?

Many may know the story of Elisa Lam from the hugely popular 2021 Netflix documentaries. Crime Scene: The Disappearance at the Cecil Hotel.

Lam was born in Vancouver in 1991 to Hong Kong parents. While studying at the University of British Columbia, Lam started an online blog where he She posted primarily about fashion and wrote about her life and struggles with mental illness. Lam seemed overwhelmed by the feeling of wasted potential after penning this quote from the author Chuck Palahniuk The epigram of her blog: “You are always haunted by the thought that you are wasting your life.”

Because Lam had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and clinical depression, she had a lot to say about mental illness and had taken various medications to help her cope. Sometime in 2012, Lam began taking fewer classes in college, and at the end of the year she decided to travel to California, planning a brief stay in Los Angeles on the way to Santa Cruz and San Diego. On January 28, 2013, she booked a stay at the historic Cecil Hotel. Unfortunately, she never made it out of California alive.

Lam's final days remain a matter of speculation to this day, but it is known that she attended a recording of Lam's life Conan but was asked to leave due to “disruptive behavior.” Likewise, the Cecil Hotel had booked her a shared room but later moved her after her roommates complained about “strange behavior.” Lam had no history of violence or reports of suicidal ideation, but she was known to have difficulty taking her bipolar medication, which often resulted in hallucinations.The last known evidence that Lam is still alive is contained in a truly strange surveillance video from an elevator at the Cecil Hotel. This video shows the student getting in and out of the elevator car erratically, appearing to look suspiciously through the hallways and waving her hands in a strange manner. On January 31, 2013, the day the video was recorded, Lam disappeared.

Elisa Lam's death is eerily similar to the events in “Dark Water”

Her parents declared her missing in early February, but police could find no trace of her. Missing person posters hung throughout the neighborhood and the elevator video was released to the public, but it was the hotel's maintenance worker who eventually found Lam's body. On February 19, nearly three weeks after her disappearance, Lam was discovered in the 1,000-gallon water tank at the Cecil Hotel. Santiago Lopez, the building's maintenance worker, had checked the tank due to complaints from guests who reported that the water in the building tasted strange and was blackish in color and that there were problems with water pressure.

Lam was reportedly naked when she was found, and autopsies revealed there were no drugs in her body at the time of her death. The reasons for her death will likely remain a mystery, with authorities providing few answers. The decomposition of her body after more than two weeks in the tank made it difficult to determine whether she had been attacked. Some assumed she had killed herself after a psychotic episode. In 2013, police officially determined Lam's death was an accident.

The circumstances of Elisa Lam's death are shockingly similar to the story of dark water, with the body in the water tank being the most disturbing resemblance. But even the building's water problems and the literal “dark water” reported by guests at the Cecil Hotel make the whole thing even scarier. Horror in fiction is something we all enjoy when it remains just that; fictitious. But Elisa Lam's untimely death adds a terrible touch of realism to the rewatch Dark water. It's one of the scariest coincidences in horror, because unlike the countless stories based Tragedy is about tragedy Dark water anything but suggestive.

Dark water can be streamed on The Criterion Channel.

Watch on Criterion