The Ring (B+ or 3/4 stars)
A mysterious video tape is killing off anyone who watches it in 'The Ring', directed by Gore Verbinski. After watching this tape, you have exactly 7 days to live. Rachel Keller (a great Naomi Watts) is a journalist investigating said video tape; that has killed 4 teens (including her own niece, played by Amber Tamblyn). If the urban legend surrounding this video tape is true, Rachel will have to run against time to save her son's life, her ex-boyfriend's life (a stellar Martin Henderson), & her own. To do so, she must travel to the Pacific Northwest in search of the tape's creepy origins. Creepy is the key word here. There may be implausibilities & cliches, but I dare you not to be scared by this genuine horror flick.
After finding out that her niece has died from this cryptic video tape, a skeptical Rachel decides to give it a look. Here's what she sees: Staticky gray & white images, a glowing 'ring', maggots, horses lying along a shore, a centipede, a spooky woman's face (looking in her own mirror), a person getting disembowled, an empty chair, a person leaping from a cliff, a ladder, a buzzing fly (all this with little-to-no volume) ... I could go on, but won't. In short, it is like watching something from a surrealistic nightmare! Rachel continues to investigate; refusing to believe that the Grim Reaper will come for her. But the stakes get higher once her little boy mistakenly watches the tape, as well. With help from her ex-boyfriend, Noah (who's also seen the damned tape), they begin to unravel the mystery.
Without getting too much into the contents of the tape, I will say that it involves both a mother-child psychodrama ... and a string of deaths at a horse ranch. Again: creepy. What I love about the film is that while it only gets creepier, you also have no idea what the Hell is going on; you're finding out as Rachel does. That's fun. I mean, scary IS fun (when executed astutely). A good word to describe 'The Ring' is clammy. Everything is muted, cold, clammy & stark. There's just something about the air-of-mystery surrounding the Pacific Northwest ... wintertime ... horses ... desolate farms. I get chills just re-thinking the imagery, photography, & cinematography decisions that were made in this film. They are both complex & brilliant.
There is much talk about the 'girl who crawls out of the well'; and how scccaaarrryyy she is. Well, guess what? On a visceral level, yes, she creates quite a scare. Her slow, robotic, twitching body rising out of an isolated well is something to behold. There are also some gross-out moments, and genuine 'screams' to be had. i.e., scenes involving the opening of a closet, and a horse-gone-wild on a ferry, come to mind. Boy, was my heart racing. But it's the TAPE that will haunt you more than anything else. The truth behind the tape is dark, edgy, disturbing, & macabre. I'm a difficult person to scare, but this film did the trick, in spades.
If there are problems with the film, they come with the territory ... it is a supernatural film. There will be suspensions-of-disbelief, and even some unexplainable things. I was bothered that the person who actually made, edited & distributed the tape is not revealed. And I also think it's a bit of a stretch that Rachel wouldn't hide the tape in a better spot (thus preventing her boy from finding it & popping it into the VCR in the 1st place). Little things got to me here & there. I wasn't wild about the child actor who played Rachel's son. And the script doesn't always live-up to its high level of acting & scares. But nothing really dampened my overall experience. The Ring is highly atmospheric, heavily gothic, & lays in you long after it's over.
After finding out that her niece has died from this cryptic video tape, a skeptical Rachel decides to give it a look. Here's what she sees: Staticky gray & white images, a glowing 'ring', maggots, horses lying along a shore, a centipede, a spooky woman's face (looking in her own mirror), a person getting disembowled, an empty chair, a person leaping from a cliff, a ladder, a buzzing fly (all this with little-to-no volume) ... I could go on, but won't. In short, it is like watching something from a surrealistic nightmare! Rachel continues to investigate; refusing to believe that the Grim Reaper will come for her. But the stakes get higher once her little boy mistakenly watches the tape, as well. With help from her ex-boyfriend, Noah (who's also seen the damned tape), they begin to unravel the mystery.
Without getting too much into the contents of the tape, I will say that it involves both a mother-child psychodrama ... and a string of deaths at a horse ranch. Again: creepy. What I love about the film is that while it only gets creepier, you also have no idea what the Hell is going on; you're finding out as Rachel does. That's fun. I mean, scary IS fun (when executed astutely). A good word to describe 'The Ring' is clammy. Everything is muted, cold, clammy & stark. There's just something about the air-of-mystery surrounding the Pacific Northwest ... wintertime ... horses ... desolate farms. I get chills just re-thinking the imagery, photography, & cinematography decisions that were made in this film. They are both complex & brilliant.
There is much talk about the 'girl who crawls out of the well'; and how scccaaarrryyy she is. Well, guess what? On a visceral level, yes, she creates quite a scare. Her slow, robotic, twitching body rising out of an isolated well is something to behold. There are also some gross-out moments, and genuine 'screams' to be had. i.e., scenes involving the opening of a closet, and a horse-gone-wild on a ferry, come to mind. Boy, was my heart racing. But it's the TAPE that will haunt you more than anything else. The truth behind the tape is dark, edgy, disturbing, & macabre. I'm a difficult person to scare, but this film did the trick, in spades.
If there are problems with the film, they come with the territory ... it is a supernatural film. There will be suspensions-of-disbelief, and even some unexplainable things. I was bothered that the person who actually made, edited & distributed the tape is not revealed. And I also think it's a bit of a stretch that Rachel wouldn't hide the tape in a better spot (thus preventing her boy from finding it & popping it into the VCR in the 1st place). Little things got to me here & there. I wasn't wild about the child actor who played Rachel's son. And the script doesn't always live-up to its high level of acting & scares. But nothing really dampened my overall experience. The Ring is highly atmospheric, heavily gothic, & lays in you long after it's over.