An intelligent and creepy story.

Rating: 8/10 (28 October 2002)

I headed out this past weekend to check a horror flick in the local theatre. When I arrived, my choices were pretty narrow: The Ring and Ghost Ship (Red Dragon was playing - but I had already seen it). I was in the mood for something a little more 'serious and intense' - if that's possible. So I selected the Ring. (Ghost Ship seemed to carry a bit more 'camp' than I was in the mood for).
I went into this movie knowing the bare bones of facts: it's a remake, it starred Naomi Watts and it carried odd looking trailers.

The film was nicely done, unbrilliant yet highly likely to leave an impression on you. The premise is simple: there's a tape out there, and when you view this, you'll receive a telephone call advising of your demise in exactly seven days. Like all good horror flicks, this devise is simple but has an excellent hook.
***Potential Spoilers Within***
Naomi Watts was great as a newpaper journalist who investigates the death of relative; she carried her role with a confidence rare in newcomers. Her colleagues were also sufficiently engaging, but not so overpowering that you didn't buy into the story. The thing I respected the most about this film is that it was a horror story that didn't resort the cliches identified in Scream and its plethora of predecessors. Actually - the number of actual deaths was minimal - surprisingly.
As our journalist proceeds through the film racing against her ultimate deadline (as expected, she watched the film, and is left with seven days to solve this mystery) she (and we) learn the origins of the tape and the reasons for the mysterious deaths.
Being a film made for American audiences, it carries a number of predictable elements, and these are ultimately forgiveable. For a film with such a broad audience base (PG13 in Canada), it did remarkably well with its restrictions. The deaths and the surrounding circumstances are quite creepy. There aren't a lot of jump-in-your-seat moments, but rather the director opted to set a creepy mood with the dusty yet sterile hospital environments, and the foggy/rainy outdoor scenes. While these can be overly familiar, they do work here, and the mood is set.
As the story unfolded, I found myself increasingly engaged in the plot. With each revelatory encounter, the thirst for more grows, and you want and need to see what lies around that next corner. The plot twists are minimal - the story follows a fairly linear path. The main thing that sets this movie apart is its ending - choosing survival, the journalist does the unthinkable (see the film if you further insight).
Ultimately - The Ring employed familiar horror film tactics with the eerie score, sudden noises and spooked animals, but it managed to tell an original creepy tale using imagery (the stuff on that tape were just creepy and will give you willies after dark). It blended the artsy elements quite well with the Hollywood elements. It could have easily been a re-hash of "Shocker" and it could have readily gone into Fellini-esque territory - but instead it straddled those and gives a solid and good story. I rank it an 8/10. Not brilliant, but memorable.