Film Review: The Ring [MINOR SPOILER WARNING]
Posted: 2002-10-29 04:26pm
My friends and I saw The Ring last night. We'd been trying to see the film for the past four nights, but our plans always managed to get foiled. Through this time, all we'd heard was, "Dude! This is the scariest movie ever!" So, we were very psyched about seeing this film. Does it live up to the hype?
In a word ... yes.
This is positively the scariest film I've ever seen. At one part, there was a girl crying in the theatre rather audibly. The film is rated PG-13, and it cleverly avoid virtually all use of swearing, sex, gore and the like. Not that these things are bad in and of themselves, but they are ridiculously overused in today's horror films. The Ring skillfully avoids any use of them, and it instead focuses on psychological horror through creepy, unsettling, grotesque but not gory imagery.
The film revolves around a videotape that kills people. After one watches the tape, he receives a phone call informing them that him that he will die in seven days. The main character, Rachel, is an investigative news reporter who comes aware of the tape through a personal loss. Her neice watched the tape and died seven days later. After talking with some of her neice's friends at the wake, she learns of it and where she was seven days ago. After going to the inn that her neice and her friends were staying at, she finds an unmarked videotape sitting on the shelf.
Rachel steals the tape and watches it, promptly receiving the phone call of impending doom after it finishes. She is frightened, but doesn't take it seriously at first, instead trying to discern the tape's origins. She takes it to her ex-lover Noah, who is an audio/video geek. After studying it, the tape's becomes even more of an enigma. It is missing a control track, so whenever it is played, the VCR's digital time display shows nothing but garbage. Copies of the tape retain the same error, though no one ever thought of digitizing the tape and importing it to an Avid or Final Cut Pro machine, apparently :).
After watching it, he gets the phone call. Rachel, at this point is scared, which launches into the meat of the film -- the investigation to find out who made the tape and where it came from, before the clock runs out.
The film expertly builds the audience up to a number of false climaxes, and the scary moments themselves are almost nothing compared to the suspense build-up.
The best part about it is that it is not a cut-and-dry conflict scenario. It is not like the exorcist where the evil and good are readily identified. The film plays on the character's faults, such as Rachel's negligence of her son, Aiden.
After all is said and done, this is a must-see film. I give it fourstars out of four.
In a word ... yes.
This is positively the scariest film I've ever seen. At one part, there was a girl crying in the theatre rather audibly. The film is rated PG-13, and it cleverly avoid virtually all use of swearing, sex, gore and the like. Not that these things are bad in and of themselves, but they are ridiculously overused in today's horror films. The Ring skillfully avoids any use of them, and it instead focuses on psychological horror through creepy, unsettling, grotesque but not gory imagery.
The film revolves around a videotape that kills people. After one watches the tape, he receives a phone call informing them that him that he will die in seven days. The main character, Rachel, is an investigative news reporter who comes aware of the tape through a personal loss. Her neice watched the tape and died seven days later. After talking with some of her neice's friends at the wake, she learns of it and where she was seven days ago. After going to the inn that her neice and her friends were staying at, she finds an unmarked videotape sitting on the shelf.
Rachel steals the tape and watches it, promptly receiving the phone call of impending doom after it finishes. She is frightened, but doesn't take it seriously at first, instead trying to discern the tape's origins. She takes it to her ex-lover Noah, who is an audio/video geek. After studying it, the tape's becomes even more of an enigma. It is missing a control track, so whenever it is played, the VCR's digital time display shows nothing but garbage. Copies of the tape retain the same error, though no one ever thought of digitizing the tape and importing it to an Avid or Final Cut Pro machine, apparently :).
After watching it, he gets the phone call. Rachel, at this point is scared, which launches into the meat of the film -- the investigation to find out who made the tape and where it came from, before the clock runs out.
The film expertly builds the audience up to a number of false climaxes, and the scary moments themselves are almost nothing compared to the suspense build-up.
The best part about it is that it is not a cut-and-dry conflict scenario. It is not like the exorcist where the evil and good are readily identified. The film plays on the character's faults, such as Rachel's negligence of her son, Aiden.
After all is said and done, this is a must-see film. I give it fourstars out of four.