Does art imitate life? Or is it the other way around?If there was one genre of art that nobody wants their life to imitate, it’s horror.Especially when that brand of horror is as creepy and unsettling as 2002’sDark Water.But in 2013, a tragic death occurred that was eerily reminiscent ofHideo Nakata’sJ-horror classic.Dark Waterand the real-life tragedy of Elisa Lamshare striking similarities that had conspiracy theorists scratching their heads when the particulars of Lam’s death came out.Dark Wateris a classic in the J-horror ghost story genre, and the case of Elisa Lam is just as creepy and unsettling as any fictional tale.
Koji Suzuki’s Creepy Short Story Comes to Life in ‘Dark Water’
Dark Waterbegan its life as a short story calledFloating Waterin a collection of stories byKoji Suzuki. Suzuki is a prolific writer in the Japanese horror space, having written the massively popularRingseries, with more than a dozen screen adaptions made of his works.Dark Waterwas picked up by director Hideo Nakata, who had also directed the massively influential Suzuki adaptationRinguin 1998. The particulars ofDark Water’s story have to be discussed to understand the odd similarities with Elisa Lam’s death, so a massive spoiler alert is in order.If anyone reading has not seenDark Waterand happens to love creepy ghost movies, go watch it and come right back!
The film concerns mother and daughter duo Yoshimi and Ikuko Matsubara, played byHitomi KurokiandRio Kannorespectively. The pair have just moved into a new apartment together after a messy divorce, with six-year-old Ikuko starting at a local kindergarten down the road. The first signs of trouble begin with a water leak in the ceiling that continues to worsen without any care from the building owners. In addition to the leak,Yoshimi starts to experience strange happenings in the apartment,like seeing a dark-haired girl that may or may not be real, and continuously having to throw out a red bag because it keeps reappearing. The film does a great job of portraying Yoshimi’s worsening stress, having to deal with her ex-husband’s persistent attempts to take Ikuko from her, made all the worse by the supernatural events that start to increase in frequency. Eventually, Yoshimi discovers that the apartment above hers used to be inhabited by a little girl named Mitsuko Kawai, seeing a missing person’s photo of the girl wearing a yellow raincoat, and carrying a red bag.
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As the leak starts to worsen, the supernatural occurrences become more frequent and dangerous. The building superintendent even fixes the leak, but it does not help. Finally,Yoshimi has a vision of Mitsuko drowning in the building’s rooftop water tank, having fallen in while trying to retrieve her red bag.All this time, it has been the restless spirit of a drowned little girlharassing the Matsubaras, and in the final act of the film,that same spirit attempts to drown Ikuko. It is a sad, creepy, and altogether terrifying story, but not without heart or emotion. It touches deftly on themes of parenthood, abandonment, and the terrible yet beautiful sacrifices mothers make for their children. As powerful and compelling asDark Watermay be, it goes without saying that nobody would want to experience it in real life.
What Happened to Elisa Lam?
Many may know the story of Elisa Lam from the wildly popular 2021 Netflix docuseries,Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel.
Lam was born in Vancouver to Hong Konger parents in 1991. While studying at the University of British Columbia, Lam started an online blog whereshe mostly posted about fashion and wrote about her life and struggles with mental illness. Lam was seemingly consumed by the feeling of wasted potential,having made this quote by writerChuck Palahniukher blog’s epigram: “You’re always haunted by the idea you’re wasting your life.”
Having been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and clinical depression, Lam had much to say on the subject of mental illness and had been on a variety of medications to help her cope. At some point in 2012, Lam began to take fewer classes at college, and by the end of the year, she had decided to travel to California, planning a short stay in Los Angeles on her way to Santa Cruz and San Diego.She booked a stay in the historic Cecil Hotel on January 28th, 2013. Sadly, she would never make it out of California alive.
Lam’s last days are a subject of speculation to this day, but it is known that sheattended a taping ofConanbut was asked to leave due to “disruptive behavior.” Similarly, the Cecil Hotel had booked her in a shared room, but later moved her after her roommatescomplained of “odd behavior.”Lam had no history of violence, and no reported history of suicidal ideation, but she was known to have issues keeping up with her bipolar medication,which often resulted in hallucinations.The last known evidence of Lam still living is contained in atruly strange surveillance videofrom an elevatorat the Cecil Hotel. This video shows the college student erratically moving in and out of the elevator car, seemingly looking down the hallways suspiciously, and waving her hands around in an odd manner. On January 31st, 2013, the day the video was taken, Lam disappeared.
Elisa Lam’s Death Is Eerily Similar to the Events of ‘Dark Water’
Her parents declared her missing in early February, but police could find no trace of her. Missing person posters were plastered around the neighborhood, and the elevator video was released to the public, but it would be the hotel’s maintenance worker who finally found Lam’s body.On February 19th, nearly three weeks after her disappearance,Lam was discovered in the 1000-gallon water tankatop the Cecil Hotel. Santiago Lopez, the building’s maintenance worker, had been checking the tank due to complaints from guests, who reported the building’s water tasting odd and having a blackish color, along with issues with water pressure.
Lam was reported to have been nude when found, and postmortem examinations revealed no drugs were in her system at the time of her death. The reasons behind her death will likely remain a mystery, with authorities offering little in the way of answers. The decomposition of her body from more than two weeks in the tank made it difficult to determine if she had been assaulted, with some assuming she killed herself after a psychotic episode.As of 2013, the police officially determined Lam’s death to be an accident.
The circumstances of Elisa Lam’s death are frighteningly similar to the story ofDark Water,with the body in the water tank being the most unsettling similarity. But even the issues with the building’s water, and the literal “dark water” reported by Cecil Hotel guests make the whole affair that much creepier. Horror in fiction is something that we all enjoy when it remains just that; fictional.But the untimely passing of Elisa Lam adds a terrible sting of realism to re-watches ofDark Water.It is one of the spookiest coincidences in horror because, unlike the countless storiesbasedon tragedies,this is a tragedy thatDark Waterall but portends.
