Entertaining nonsense.

Rating: 5/10 (1 February 2004)

A movie about an evil VHS cassette. Why not? -- we've clearly run out of other ideas. But before you ladle on the praise for originality, please recall that this is a remake of a much tighter Japanese cult-shocker.
*The Ring* is equally weighted with virtues and faults. The actual videotape in question, which will kill you exactly one week to the minute after you view it, is itself a rather clever take-off on some of the Surrealist work of Bunuel and Dali from the Twenties (but without Bunuel's REALLY horrible imagery, like eyeballs getting slit with knives). An advance here is that the imagery on the tape comes alive, right through the TV: a filmed housefly can actually be plucked off the screen, as the days ominously pass and the curse gathers strength. Needless to say, the housefly is merely foreshadowing for much nastier "interactive" horrors to come.
The plot is full of holes or is otherwise incomprehensible. The movie never considers, for instance, that a person could simply be in a place where there are no televisions when his or her week is up: without the medium of television, the ghost isn't able to manifest itself in order to kill him/her. Or perhaps you simply die, whether you're near a TV or not. Who knows? There are other absurdities, but to give them out would be spoiling things. (For those in the know, I'm referring to the efficacy of making copies.)
It's not that I require water-tight plots for my horror films -- or indeed, for any films. But it's to be assumed that a movie without a strong plot will have many other virtues to compensate. *The Ring* mostly fails here, as well: Verbinski's idea of setting a mood consists of covering the camera lenses with icy-blue filters; the cast, with the sole exception of Naomi Watts, is low-wattage and includes a Haley Joel Osment copycatter (at one point, the kid in this movie even wears an undertaker's dark suit); and the suspense is disappointingly light, except for the splendid beginning when we aren't sure what to expect.
But having said all this, *The Ring* also avoids being completely ridiculous. The main characters, who operate and investigate under a cloud of certain impending death, seem caught up in a psychological anguish which is unusual in a genre where sudden scares are the norm. Self-sacrifice in a horror flick hasn't been seen since the finale of *The Exorcist*, thirty years ago. All in all, *The Ring* gamely continues the mini-Renaissance of decent scary movies that began with *The Sixth Sense*. Worth watching -- 5 / 10.