wow... a good horror movie, lives up to its hype

Rating: Null/10 (22 October 2002)

Recent horror movies have been disappointing for me. "The Blair Witch Project" seemed more enamored with its first-person cinematography than telling a good story. I had high hopes for "Mothman Prophecies," but left the theatre feeling as if I had just been pickpocketed. I didn't go into "The Ring" with very high expectations.
"The Ring" begins like a number of other movies. Teenage girls, alone in a house, rehashing horror stories and urban legends. Ten minutes into the movie, I was wondering if this was yet another horror/slasher ("I know what you did..." genre). Thirty minutes later, I felt like I was actually watching a movie that a director, writer, and cast actually *cared* about. It went from horror/"slasher" to a rather unique story around a cliche urban legend.
Daveigh Chase was unrecognizeable as Samara. Ms. Chase is typically the "cute, Disney girl" ("Lilo & Stitch","Spirited Away"). In "The Ring," she is truly otherworldly. Her acting gave me goosebumps. Naimi Watts and Martin Henderson were both very good in their roles. They seemed to be real, everyday, people who were caught up in a bizarre horror/mystery.
I'd recommend "The Ring" to others. It might not be a movie you'd see again and again, but it will leave you scared and thinking about your fears. That's more than I can say about most modern horror movies.