Videos Are Hazardous to your Health.

Rating: 9/10 (30 October 2005)

There is a quote from the trailer for 1963 film version of THE HAUNTING: "What does it take to prove to you that the dead don't always rest in peace?" Well, the question is about to be answered in Gore Verbinski's clever and very frightening adaptation of the Japanese movie RINGU.
It tells the urban legend-like story of a "cursed" video that, when viewed, will bring death unto the viewer within seven days -- no less, no more. As a matter of fact, the tongue-in-cheek beginning in which two teenage girls are chattering about this video sets the stage which inexorably details the unspeakable fate which is about to befall to one of the girls, Katie (played by "JOAN OF ARCADIA" star Amber Tamblyn), the first of four victims to die in an inexplicable fashion.
Enter Katie's aunt Rachel (Naomi Harris), a reporter called on by her sister to find out about what lead to her death. Rachel learns that Karie and three other friends died at exactly 10 o'clock at the same time and notices that pictures taken at a trip to a remote lodge reveal blurry, almost monstrous faces... as if their very images had been completely corrupted. She heads out to this lodge, picks up the video by chance, rents a room, views the tape -- which is a collection of disturbing, "art-movie" images... and gets a call in which she has seven days to live.
And as simple as that, the story of THE RING takes off into uncharted territory as Verbinski develops the events stemming off from the act of viewing this tape while simultaneously trying to find out about its nature: where it comes from, who made it, why does it even exist. Because Rachel only has seven days to solve this mystery, as does her ex-husband Noah who has seen the tape, and because their own son's life is also in danger, the tension is greatly heightened. Matters must be settled, because it's becoming progressively clear that this is no ordinary tape, and because things are getting more and more complicated, and the noose is tightening.
Verbinski brings forth the back-story surrounding this tape expertly, a little at a time, almost casually. One is led to believe the woman in the video -- Anna Morgan -- is the person to focus on, but this is far from the truth, as are several other details surrounding the ill-fated Morgan family. This is a trick that Hitchcock used fairly regularly in all of his suspense films and Verbinski clearly knows his suspense: in not revealing too much too soon and misleading his viewers, he fools them. Adding surreal elements of imminent danger about to manifest itself at every turn only amps up the terror, and one sequence is a definite standout. While heading to a secluded island on a ferry, a horse, sensing something other than Rachel's presence (or reacting to her taint, since she has seen this cursed tape and is marked by its black energy), breaks free from where it's being kept and threatens to cause some grievous bodily harm to someone, anyone, on the ferry. What happens to that horse is as horrifying as anything committed on screen, even more so than the film's denouement, and forces us to realize we are entering into a world of true, absolute evil.
The thing is, to fall right into the heart of a mystery can be one of the most awful things anyone can experience, and Rachel, here being the Final Girl, does just that. More than a reporter she is the person who penetrates the inner circle that lies within the images of the video, but also, in doing so, she is also the one who releases its will upon the world and perpetuates its existence. Like the ring from LORD OF THE RINGS, like many of Stephen King's monsters and skeletons from his own books, Bad Things Want To Be Found because pain and terror are the things in which they feed on.
Relentlessly disturbing, THE RING is proof that one doesn't need to spell it out to be terrifying. The mundane has become chaos, the third wall has been broken, and the author of this hellish nightmare has come to vampirize on our very souls. An excellent horror film, made better because of its deft direction, precise acting, rich atmosphere, and the law that having no explanation for the whys is the best approach.