An unbiased view

Rating: 7/10 (24 October 2003)

I haven't seen the original Japanese version of this film, so i was able to watch the film without having to compare it to Ringu. As a result i quite liked this film. I found it to be genuinely scary and well acted. Unlike most horrors that are produced in Hollywood nowadays this film turns its back on "teen horror", and the opening sequence can perhaps be seen as a kind of tongue in cheek rejection of teen based horror movies. The storyline in this movie manages to captivate you into the film; you find yourself caring for the main characters as well as feeling a fascinating mixture of pity and horror for the family featured in the video tape.
Overall therefore the film comes across as a decent horror movie, with the director Gore Verbinski wisely using suspense over blood to scare the audience. Verbinski is triumphant in so far as he has created a film whose dark mood manages to leave an unsettling psychological effect on the audience by the end of the film. The main actors too are in good form, in the shape of Australiasians Naomi Watts and Martin Henderson. Another major plus for this film is the cinematic use of colouring. There is a distinct use of dark greenish imagery throughout this film which greatly heightens the gloomy atmosphere that Verbinski clearly wants to create.
That said this film is not without criticism. The ending is unsatisfactory and damages much of the good work of the film up until that point. There is also little attempt made at making sense of just who the little girl really was, and why she was doing what she was. The boy too is a bit tedious, his character almost seems to be saying to the audience "we wanted Haley Joe Osmond but he is now too old and too expensive." That aside this is a decent horror movie, though had i seen the original, like with so many other Hollywood remakes i suspect i would have been disappointed with this film.