I went into total paranoia for a few weeks after viewing The Ring

Rating: 9/10 (1 February 2003)

I had received sneak passes to see The Ring early. I was expecting a film with some eerie elements, like The Sixth Sense or The Others. I wasn't expecting something that would send me deep into the dark tunnels of my own paranoia and leave me locked in it for a few weeks. I will kid you not. I am a person that doesn't get scared easily and The Ring shook and crumbled the very foundation. Gore Verbinski takes the basis of Ringu, the original Japanese version, and mixes in his own little twists to create the most frightening movie of 2002.
SPOILERS
There were two scenes that scared me the absolute most.
A) The first being when Ruth tells Rachel about how Katie's face looked when they found her body and they do that quick flash of Katie's body falling out of the closet with that disturbing look of shock embedded in her face. What made that scene so eerie, besides the make-up, was the sound effects used and the fact that you weren't expecting it to happen at all.
B) Whoever says that the scene with Samara coming out of the well and the TV in the end wasn't scary is probably lying because they refuse to admit it. That was the scene that sent me into paranoia because I have a TV in my room that's right in front of my bed. Imagine how frightened I was when I was getting ready for bed and having to eye my TV the entire time. The way it's shot and the way Samara moves sends your nerves straight to Hell.
END SPOILERS
The film also showcases an excellent cast, including Naomi Watts, fresh off her voyeuristic role in Mulholland Drive, Martin Henderson, Brian Cox, and Daveigh Chase, who takes her sweet roles of Donnie Darko's younger sister and the voice of Lilo and totally changes into Samara, the black-haired, dead-eyed girl with a mind of pure evil.
Be warned: don't see The Ring alone.