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Cold Water
Directed by	Renny Harlin
Starring	Alexz Johnson Chace Crawford Nan Zhang
Release dates	July 12, 2005
Running time	130 min
Country	United States
Language	English

Cold Water is a 2005 American horror movie directed by Renny Harlin. It is a remake of the 2002 J-Horror film Mizu.

Plot Summary

As the opening titles play, we see a rainy beach at night. A speedboat is out in the ocean; a young man on the boat throws something large overboard. He then heads off. The next morning, near the shore of the beach, a small girl is seen standing knee-deep in water, gazing downward. She's wearing a pair of pink sunglasses. It's then shown that she's staring at her reflection in the water. After smiling for a few seconds, she waves, giggles, and runs back to the shore. The camera rests on the water for a few seconds.

12 years later (as the subtitles read), the girl, Zoey Erickson, is now 18, a senior in high school about to graduate. She's currently complaining to her friend Alyssa about her boyfriend, whom she claims barely spends any time with her anymore because he's so busy with his job on the police force. After hearing about the fight, Alyssa hints that their problems might have something to do with the fact that Alex (the boyfriend) is so much older than her. Zoey argues that the age difference means nothing because Alex is a family friend whom she's know almost her entire life.

Zoey's bad day turns worse when she gets a test handed back; not only did she fail but her teacher (Mr. Lanzer) loudly announces that she received the lowest grade in the entire class. During lunch, Zoey goes to ask him if there's anything she can do to raise her grade, he touches her shoulder and says that he "thinks he can come up with something." Disgusted, Zoey rushes out of the classroom. When Alyssa asks her what's wrong, Zoey simply snaps, "I hate him!"

After school, Zoey and Alyssa part ways so that Zoey can go see Alex. When she stops by his apartment, he's not there, but his younger brother, Tucker, is. The two talk for a while, and Zoey then embarrassedly tells Tucker about Mr. Lanzer's advances. He tells her that she should do something, and then asks if she would like for him to "take care of him for her." Zoey doesn't want to cause trouble, so she changes the subject and begins to reminisce about the summers that their families used to spend at the beach when they were all kids. When Tucker talks about how much fun it was for the her, him, Mary (Zoey's older sister), and Alex, Zoey confusedly asks if there was ever another girl who went with them. Tucker answers that it was always just the four of them, however, Zoey often "brought" her imaginary friend Elizabeth. At that point, Alex comes home, and although the two greet him warmly, he seems a bit wary at the sight of Zoey and Tucker together. Sensing this, Tucker leaves. As he walks out of the apartment, he catches a glance of Alex and Zoey looking at each other with affection, which upsets him.

Later that night, Mr. Lanzer is at home, grading papers and watching TV. He hears a knock at the door and goes to answer it, however, there's no one there. He turns back and heads for the TV again, but hears something in the kitchen. He walks in and looking in the direction of the camera, exclaims, "What the hell are you doing here?!" The camera pans out to show the outside of his apartment building, and a scream is heard.

The next morning, it's all over the news that Mr. Lanzer was found dead in his home. Although there was no signs of forced entry or a struggle, he had been stabbed in the back of the head. The police currently have no leads in the murder. Zoey is shaken up by the news but still goes to school. During lunch, Alyssa pulls her aside and quietly asks her if she was the one who killed Mr. Lanzer. Zoey angrily tells her that she wasn't; she spent the night at Alex's place. However, Zoey remembers what Tucker said about taking care of Mr. Lanzer for her, and fears that he's the killer.

That afternoon, Zoey goes to the police station under the guise of bringing Alex a special dinner that she made for him, as he's working night shift. In reality, she's going to see Tucker in hopes of finding out whether or not he killed Mr. Lanzer. When Zoey find him, to her surprise, Tucker asks her if she killed him. He tells her that since he knows that she has a motive, he should really bring her in as a suspect, but he tells her that he really doesn't think that she has it in her to commit murder. Zoey reminds him that she was with Alex all night and is visibly relieved by her conversation with Tucker; she thinks that since he's investigating the case, he didn't do it.

Zoey goes back home and starts going through the things in her closet, presumably because she's moving out after graduation. While cleaning, she comes across an old crayon drawing she did years ago. It shows two girls, one with short blonde hair and green eyes, the other with waist-length dark hair and gray eyes. The caption reads, "Me and Elizabeth." Smiling, she begins to remember her old imaginary friend. A minute or so later, she also comes across the sunglasses from the beginning of the movie. She puts them on, and is startled by the sight of a pair of legs, ending in shoe-clad feet, in the closet. Frightened, she throws aside the other things in the closet to confront the intruder, but realizes that it was just a pair of pants hanging down over shoes that made it look like there was someone standing there. Shaken up, Zoey casts the sunglasses and drawing away. Behind her back, a small shadow becomes just barely visible.

At school the next day, Zoey and Alyssa are eating lunch outside. Alyssa suggests to Zoey that they hang out after school. Zoey replies that she can't; she's going to spend the evening with Alex again. Alyssa gets annoyed and tells Zoey that she spends too much time with her boyfriend, "who should probably be dating someone closer to his own age anyway." Zoey gets angry and accuses her of hating Alex and being jealous of them. The two fight. Finally, after Alyssa calls her a "bitch" and leaves, Zoey yells after her that she hates her.

That evening, at Alex's place, Zoey tells him about her fight with Alyssa. Alex doesn't think it's a big deal and admits that maybe they do spend too much time together. The two begin to fight and then Alex gets a call to come examine a crime scene. Telling Zoey that he has work to do, he leaves the apartment.

An emotional wreck after her fights with Alyssa and now Alex, Zoey walks out into the street without looking and nearly gets hit by a car. It's Tucker; after he initially scolds her for being careless, he asks her what's wrong. When she starts to cry, he offers her a ride home. She argues that she doesn't want to go home to an empty house (earlier in the movie, she mentioned to Alyssa that her parents were out of town that week). Slightly uncomfortable, Tucker then offers to let her come back to his place for a few hours. At Tucker's apartment, he and Zoey talk, and he tells her to call Alyssa to apologize for their fight. He also assures her that, even though Alex spends a lot of time at work, he truly cares for her.

Zoey takes Tucker's advice and calls Alyssa, apologizing for being so mean to her. Alyssa forgives her and promises that they're still friends, but urges her to spend less time with Alex and more time with her friends. Zoey agrees and, her mood visibly brighter, hangs up. She lays down on Tucker's couch and falls asleep. He comes back, sees her, sighs, and walks away (presumably to go to bed himself).

Zoey has a dream where she's a six-year-old girl again, standing knee-deep in water, looking at her reflection. She takes the sunglasses from earlier in the movie out of her pocket, and puts them on. Suddenly, a hand jerks out of the water and grabs her arm. Zoey snaps awake and looks around. She becomes frightened when she sees marks on her arm, as if someone had grabbed her.

We then see Alyssa's house. She steps out of the bathroom, wrapped in a towel, and walks into her room. She's startled by something unseen, turns, and sees Zoey sitting on her bed. In surprise, she exclaims, "Zoey!" The view jumps to outside her room, and again, a scream is heard.

The next morning, Tucker drops Zoey back off at her house. Awkwardly, the two agree not to tell Alex that Zoey spent the night at Tucker's because they know that he'd be jealous. Just as Zoey gets home, though, there's a knock at the door. It's the police; Alyssa's been found dead, stabbed in the back of the head, and Zoey's a suspect.

At the police station, Zoey is grilled by investigators. They demand to know where she was last night at the time of the murder; she's hesitant to say so because Alex is standing right outside the door. He's joined by Tucker, who looks uncomfortable when Alex wonders aloud why she doesn't just answer the investigator's questions. Finally, Zoey cracks and admits that she was with Tucker. Tucker is called in to confirm her alibi, which Alex overhears. Disgusted, he storms away.

Zoey and Tucker chase after him, insisting that nothing happened between the two of them. Alex refuses to believe it, and after telling off his brother, tells Zoey that he doesn't want to date her anymore. Distraught, Zoey screams at Alex that she hates him.

That night, Alex is at his apartment, drinking and watching TV, obviously depressed by his break-up with Zoey. He hears a knock at the door and looks through the peephole; it's Zoey. He angrily tells her to go away. Upset, she begs him to open the door and let her in. He considers it for a few seconds, and then throws the door open, embracing Zoey with love. He apologizes for breaking-up with her and promises to be a better boyfriend. Zoey tells him that she loves him. Alex continues to embrace her, but suddenly flinches; he looks down and realizes that Zoey's stabbed him in the stomach with a switchblade knife. Cackling, Zoey pushes him to the ground. He backs away, terrified, and Zoey follows him. They pass by the coffee table, and through Alex's glasses that are sitting on the table, the figure changes; it's not Zoey but a tall girl with long, messy hair and wearing a white dress. From outside the apartment, Alex's scream is heard.

Meanwhile, Zoey is miserably laying in her bed. Her cell phone rings; it's Tucker. He tells her to get out of her house and get as far away as she can. His voice breaks; he found Alex dead in his apartment; and he knows that as soon as he calls the police, no one will believe that Zoey didn't kill him. Zoey tells him that she's going to go to their parents' old beach house and to meet her there as soon as he knows what's going on. After hanging up the phone, Zoey jumps out of bed, grabs some things out of drawers and off of her floor, and runs out of the house. She's shown riding a bus out of town.

After Tucker gets out of questioning (the coroner ruled that Alex died while Tucker was at work, so he's ruled out as a suspect), he goes back into the police file room and begins to look at old obituaries to try to figure out what's going on. He comes across an article and stops, murmurs, "Elizabeth," and leaves the police station.

Zoey is holed up at the beach house, waiting for Tucker to come. Nervously, she rifles through her things, and realizes that she accidentally picked up the sunglasses when she was throwing things into the bag. When Tucker arrives, he tells her what he's discovered: about 15 years ago, there was a teenage girl named Elizabeth Watanabe living in a beach house near theirs. Elizabeth left her house one night and simply never came back, and although no one truly knows what happened to her, it was rumored that she was murdered by an angry ex-boyfriend. The last time they were seen together, she was said to yell at him, "I hate you!" Tucker then describes Elizabeth's physical appearance: she was a tall girl, with long dark hair and gray eyes. Horrified, Zoey realizes that her "imaginary friend" was actually Elizabeth's ghost.

Tucker then asks Zoey when she stopped believing in Elizabeth, and why. Tears in her eyes, she said that it was about 10 years ago. Her Grandmother irritably told her that she was too old to have imaginary friends. Later that day, her Grandmother was murdered. Grief-stricken, Zoey decided to stop believing in childish things like imaginary friends. She looks up at Tucker and tells him that she knows what she has to do.

She and Tucker wade out into the water, and Zoey looks down at her reflection. She puts on the sunglasses, and is shocked to see Elizabeth staring up at her from beneath the water. She reaches her hands out, and Elizabeth's rotting, corpse-like hands shoot out, grab Zoey's wrists, and attempt to pull her into the water with her. Tucker panics and fights with Elizabeth to keep Zoey up. Elizabeth (from underneath the water) tells Zoey that she loved her so much and was glad that they were friends. She killed Zoey's grandmother because she was afraid that she would separate them, but then Zoey stopped talking to her. For 10 years, Elizabeth left her alone, but then couldn't stand her loneliness anymore. She then decided to kill everyone that made Zoey mad; that way, Zoey would be happy with her and want to be friends again. And now that Zoey's here with her, they can be friends forever.

Zoey yells at Elizabeth that she understands that she was lonely, but it's bad to kill people, and Elizabeth needs to move on. Elizabeth insists that Zoey has to stay with her, but Zoey just keeps saying that Elizabeth can't stay here. Finally, after Zoey apologizes for leaving Elizabeth for all these years, Elizabeth stops, and her grip goes slack. Zoey and Tucker pull what's left of Elizabeth's body out of the water, which is pretty much just a skeleton. Zoey looks at Elizabeth's skull and notices what looks like a knife-wound. It dawns on her that Elizabeth probably died by being stabbed in the head; that would explain her m.o. for killing everyone else. Finally, they call the police, who take the body away to give it a proper burial. As the investigators say that Zoey's been cleared for Alex's murder, Tucker hugs her and says, "It's over."

Zoey and Tucker return to the house, where it's implied that they spend the night together. Sometime during the night, Zoey gets out of bed and leaves Tucker behind. She returns a few minutes later and hovers over Tucker. He wakes up to find her smiling at him. He gets up to ask her what's wrong, but she makes a move to kiss him. At that moment, Tucker catches Zoey's reflection in the mirror and realizes that it's actually Elizabeth. Terrified, he rolls out of bed and tries to get away but Elizabeth grabs him and holds him down, attempting to stab him with a switchblade knife.

The real Zoey hears the struggle and runs into the room. She sees "herself" attacking Tucker and attempts to wrestle Elizabeth off of him. Elizabeth continues trying to stab Tucker, screaming at him, "ZOEY IS MINE!" As she manages to get tucker in the shoulder, Zoey grows hysterical, finally screaming at Elizabeth, "I FUCKING HATE YOU!" This phrase, however, grabs Elizabeth's attention, she backs away from Tucker and tears in her eyes, stares back at Zoey. She condenses into a puddle of water on the floor. Visibly shaken up, Zoey runs over to help Tucker.

15 years later, Zoey and Tucker are back at the beach from the beginning of the movie, watching their daughter play in the water. After talking for a few seconds (in which it's implied that Zoey is pregnant with their second child), Zoey walks away to go set up their picnic and tells Tucker to go get "Susie." Tucker walks down toward the water, noticing that Susie is staring down at her own reflection. He picks her up and, looking down at the reflection, comments, "What a beautiful girl!" He sets her down and tells her to come and eat. However, Susie continues staring at the water. She then smiles and waves. When Tucker calls her again, she giggles and dashes away. The camera settles on the water, similar to in the beginning of the movie…

Cast

Alexz Johnson as Zoey Erickson

Nan Zhang as Elizabeth Watanabe

Chace Crawford as Tucker Michaels

Reception

Cold Water was met with lukewarm reviews. Many critics noted a large number of clichés in the film, one reviewer going so far as to say, "Cold Water is proof that if you've seen one remade Japanese movie, you've seen them all." Many fans of the original film, Mizu, were also disapointed by the fact that the Elizabeth Watanabe's backstory was very different from that of Kasumi Fujimoto.

However, the film did receive some positive feedback; it was praised for its overall adherance to the original film, engaging plot, and specifically Alexz Johnson's performance as Zoey. It was also noted for its "bold" use of relatively unknown celebrities on the cast.

Cold Water currently has a "62% fresh" rating at the movie review site Rotten Tomatoes.

External links

• Cold Water at IMDb

• Cold Water at Rotten Tomatoes

Category:2005 films

Category:2000s horror films

Category:Films directed by Renny Harlin

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