The Ring (2002)

Disturbing images and a few good shocks don't stop The Ring from being a hash of half-baked ideas. It's the kind of frightfest you'll watch to set a chilling mood or spook your susceptible friends, but when you try to sort it out, this well-mounted American remake (of the 1998 Japanese hit Ringu, based on Koji Suzuki's popular novel) collapses into a heap of incoherent parts. The negligible plot follows a Seattle reporter (Naomi Watts) as she investigates the death of her niece, the victim of a mysterious videotape that, according to vague urban legend, causes the viewer's death seven days later. (Fear Dot Com borrowed the same idea while avoiding this film's lofty pretensions.) The reporter, her son, and her estranged boyfriend view the tape, and the film's countdown structure follows them into deepening layers of terror--all quite effective until the movie attempts to explain itself. At that you're better off shutting down your brain and letting the creepy visuals take over. --Jeff Shannon Amazon.com

Damon Medic's review of "The Ring"

Damon Medic says that of every creepy movie ever made, this film evokes the most real horror this reviewer has ever experienced! This is a film about a video tape that once seen, kills the viewer in seven days. The content of the video tape that kills, has an extremely eery quality. The silence of the video images adds to the horror that just cannot be described in words. You almost feel as though YOU are the viewer of the video tape and that You will die in seven days. I have nightmares about this film, and I'm not ashamed to admit it.
Damon Medic October 8, 2008

Bizarre little thing of horror

No, I really would not consider this to be "the scariest movie ever made". Though I still admit I was scared out of my wits upon my first viewing. What I love about this movie now is the sheer spooktacular fun of this bizarre little story. I have never seen the original Japanese movie so it is difficult to appreciate the more random feel. However, if one does appreciate it one will be entertained by the madcap suspense of a truly creative little movie. September 27, 2008

Circular, confusing, kind of fun

This is not a particularly scary movie, but it is kind of fun to watch. I sort of got interested in following the heroine's quest to find out the history of the supposedly lethal video tape. The story started unraveling, and the pieces of the puzzle started coming together in an intriguing way. It was almost starting to make sense. The plot began to look like it would make sense with an intelligent path through some twists and turns to a definite conclusion. It wasn't too scary, but it was fun. Then it looked like the movie was just about to end...but it didn't! Suddenly, the last 5 minutes or so, it finally started getting scary...and then it hit you with a confusing end that made you sit there and say, "What the hell was that???" There were moments where I almost thought that this could end up being a 4-star flick...but nothing really materialized, and the ending just killed it. This was a decent movie with a lot of shortcomings...not too scary, but it was a fun watch. I recommend: Rent it! It'll be fun to watch once or twice. There will be a few brief moments of fright, but not many. It's an okay fun story. Don't get too bothered by the fact that the ending makes no sense. It's not that important after a fun flick...and you won't feel any need to own it.
September 12, 2008

The new wave of "J" horror.

Saw The Ring, loved the ring.
The acting, the story, direction, atmosphere is superb.
It is more slowly paced than American horror movies but I loved it.
It builds more suspense.
The music is amazing.
There really isn't anything bad to say about this movie.
Of all the "J" horror films that have come to America, The Ring is probably the best of the bunch.
Too bad the sequel sucked, and I hope Hollywood has the sense to stop now.
June 25, 2008

Solid 'Ring' with a Few Gaps in the Link

(3.5 *'s) Nearly into the first thirty-five minutes of `The Ring' I got so many jolts, I nearly turned the DVD off. Popular, and often revered by horror fans, the film renders a favorably mixed bag. Conceptually it frightens and fascinates even if its premise is hokey, and there are many rules of thumb that are broken or inconsistent. Still, I was glad to take the journey. If the goal of a horror movie is to scare and tell a story, then the film truly has the goods to deliver.

The movie is nearly universal, so I'll be brief: Two teenage girls, Katie Embry and Becca Kotler, are sharing the tale of a video that once seen will be followed by a threatening phone call announcing the viewer has but one week to live. The girls are playing it out as a ghost story as they jive and enthuse one another, but on every other turn each becomes serious until one girl gets the phone call. There are many false alarms that work effectively, but once we're in, there's no turning back.

A short time later, the death sentence has turned out to be true and the haunted vision comes upon those who have viewed the videotape. Anyone would pass it off except all the teenagers associated with it stayed at a cabin with the tape turn up dead.

Naturally, believing it or not requires investigation, so Katie's aunt, Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts) is every bit willing and ready as she tries to tie together what or who caused her niece's death. Her own son, Aidan (David Dorfman) is much like Cole in `The Sixth Sense,' and his own supernatural take on dreams and drawings gives us more of an eerie feeling about the whole affair. Her loved one (Martin Henderson) is drawn into the sleuthing mission, but his skepticism does much for the film's tension.

`The Ring' is a carefully crafted full-length `Twilight Zone' or `Night Gallery' adventure. There was one episode of the latter where a "Nutcracker" curse was brought upon its recipients, but that was shorter with rules that seemed to work better. Much of the credibility comes from the videotape itself, which would win in an art exhibition and brings much atmosphere to the movie, but it stretches belief a bit. (Sprinkling clues to bring participants to the truth of a mystery--why not leave a straightforward message? This is answered partly in the movie, but not well enough.)

As a story it works. It does have a mystery to unveil, and mostly it is a satisfying tale of tragedy, but I do have some complaints about the ending. Without revealing the store, there's a scene played out near the fireplace that brings some question as to the rules being broken near the end. The ending is meant to be a chilling resolution, but unintentionally the fireplace scene shows that the powers that be can be manipulated. Let's just say I see a way out of the curse that the ending doesn't seem to indicate.

(Based on a novel by Japanese author Koji Suzuki and an original Japanese movie. Directed by Gore Verbinski.)

(Special thanks to fellow reviewer Steve Hedge for putting this film on my radar screen.) June 22, 2008

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