Could have been a ringing endorsement. Too bad...

Rating: 6/10 (16 October 2002)

It's that time of year again when the leaves are turning kaleidoscopic colors, the air is tinged with the crisp scent of renewal and brain busting midterms are once again a distant painful memory. It also means that we will be bombarded with ads for half-baked horror flicks that have been gathering dust on studio shelves, in the vain hope of scaring up some cheap Halloween thrills. Worse yet, the gullible masses will inevitably take the bait.

Everyone is shocked when Rachel Keller's teen aged niece literally drops dead for no apparent reason. An investigative reporter, Rachel's curiosity is piqued when she is hears that Katie and three of her friends died after watching a cursed videotape. Determined to debunk an urban legend and make great copy in the process, Rachel inadvertently stumbles upon a sinister secret. If she doesn't solve the ensuing mystery in seven days, not only will she blow her deadline, she dies. Nothing like a little incentive.
Based on the 1998 Japanese film of the same name, The Ring rises above it's contemporaries: it doesn't rely on elaborate eviscerations, naked nubile teenagers or multimillion dollar CGI effects. The first hour of the film is a pure Hitchockian-style thriller with a supernatural bent, mixing disturbing surreal imagery with quick cut away shots and an eerie score to devastating effect (there were moments where the hairs on the back of my neck literally stood on end). It's too bad that the remaining fifty minutes are a different movie.
The second half of the film serves as a caveat for film makers on what not to do: introduce irrelevant characters, lose sight of your plot and allow it to ramble aimlessly, have a fake climax (that's never a good thing), and wrap with a predictable ending. The biggest glitch however is the `villain' of the piece.
Whether demon, psycho, monster or serial killer, there needs to be some underlying motivation that drives the antagonist to seek vengeance. While the killer in The Ring was indeed wronged, it is never fully explained why this happened, and the victims are in no way associated with these events. Consequently, the antagonist's actions make no sense within the context of the film, especially when efforts to ameliorate these injustices only serve to magnify her rampage.
Regardless whether you prefer the thinking person's subtle horror stylings of The Sixth Sense or the pea soup expectorant head spinning of The Exorcist, The Ring will leave you unfulfilled and annoyed for having let you down.