Easily the best true horror movie of the past 20 years

Rating: 8/10 (1 August 2012)

Ever since the horror genre reached its peak in the late 70s and early 80s, it has almost completely dropped off the map. There are movies branded as "horror" films, but they are either crummy rip-offs, sequels, or lame "slasher" movies that provide no atmosphere. Or, they are psychological thriller types like Silence of the Lambs, which is a great movie but barely fits into the genre. The truly great ones have told interesting stories while frightening us with the ugly side of our nature. The truly great ones, like Invasion of the Body Snatchers and The Exorcist, are unsettling enough to make a grown man like me have a little more trouble sleeping that night.
The Ring is one of two horror movies of the past 20 years that I think are legitimately worth owning (the other being The Sixth Sense). It is a great movie for the same reasons that The Shining, The Omen, and The Thing are great movies – because it is creative, it tells a great story, and it has great atmosphere. It also features a threat that you can't hide or run away from. The monster is scary because you don't get to see it for most of the movie. When you finally get to see the "monster" at the end, it is a spectacular, surprise climax – one of my favorite horror scenes of all time. The Ring is highly unpredictable, and at the end, it has a meaning that is completely different from what you expected it to be. It is a movie that gets better the second time that you see it, because once you know how it ends, you notice the themes a lot better – themes that are relevant and play off of the things that we see in our life that scare us.
I have seen mixed opinions about whether The Ring is better than the original Japanese Ringu. It is rare that I say this, but in this case, the remake is better. If you ask me, a lot better. Why? In my humble opinion, it is because of the outstanding cinematography and production values that this movie showcases. The vibe of this movie is "David Fincher meets Twin Peaks". The sound effects, especially, are fantastic. The movie revolves around a mysterious videotape that is supposedly fatal to watch. When you finally get to see that tape, we see that it is nothing but a bunch of short, black and white video clips spliced together. But boy, is it creepy, and that is because of the sound that comes out of it. It is so creepy that if you hadn't been told how dangerous it was during the movie, you would immediately figure it out on your own.
This movie does have one big weakness and that is the acting. Bryan Cox is in a brief supporting role, and he is good. Naomi Watts gives a somewhat flat performance as the main character. When she has to step up and show a bit of emotion, she doesn't do it very well. For the rest of the cast, it's no-name city. Watts's son and ex-boyfriend are equally "meh" in their performances. I don't mind that much though, because Watts's character dominates the screen time, and she is almost a passive observer. Although she has a personal stake in solving the movie's mystery, she spends almost all of the movie just asking people questions, researching, and watching.
The Ring is a movie that deserves a score higher than the one that it has here on IMDb. I would give it a 10 to try and prop it up, but it's not quite a masterpiece like The Thing. I think that The Ring suffers a bit, public perception-wise, from having started the short-lived "Japanese horror" fad of the mid-oughts. Creepy ghost children became old hat almost immediately, so now this movie looks like just another flick that tried to score cheap thrill points by following along. What none of the other "creepy ghost children" movies like "Dark Water" and "The Grudge" ever had was an interesting reason for the creepy ghost children to exist, or an interesting story. The Ring has those in spades, along with the ability to make itself linger in your mind for a long time after you turn off the TV.