Dark and gloomy horror,imported(in story)from the LandoftheRisingSun

Rating: 8/10 (25 October 2006)

When the niece of investigative reporter Rachel Keller(Naomi Watts,beautiful and intriguing as always)dies under strange circumstances related to a video cassette and her quiet,shy grad school-age son(David Dorfman)seems to know more about the situation than he should,she decides to investigate what at first seems to be an urban myth.
What she uncovers is something of a dark and disturbing riddle that traces to a small island community off the coast of Washington state involving a horse stable owner(Bryan Cox),his wife and his other-worldly daughter,now both deceased. With her ex-husband (Martin Freeman)in tow,Rachel tries to stop whatever it is that's been cursing the video tape before it goes for it's next victims:namely,her ex,her son and herself. This is supposed to be a shot-for-shot American remake of the Japanese horror success Ringu,but since I've yet to see the original,I can only truly judge this film for its own merits. Director Gore Verbiski(spelling?),who would follow this late fall of 2002 hit with another pay-dirt movie in Pirates of the Caribbean,Curse of the Black Pearl,is very good about keeping the scenery and images as gray,rainy and gloomy as possible throughout much of the film(Setting it in Seattle and near Vancouver was a very deft move). This film never strays too far from the concept of imminent peril hanging over anyone unwise enough to mess with the tape. I'd suppose that my problems with this movie mostly stem from the ending,which I will not spoil to you here,only to say that it seems to not tie together the questions of the movie as it would like. In other words,it,to me,seemed to only open up more plot gaps and questions as it sewed up. I will say that might have had to do with the producers wanting to leave room for a sequel,but somehow it feels like that could've been done more cleverly than it was.
Still,a good watch for someone who appreciates the more visceral side of scary,tense,compelling movies.