Good, better than Ringu, does NOT ripoff Sixth, etc

Rating: Null/10 (12 November 2002)

I liked The Ring. It wasn't as scary as I was expecting, with the good thrills only in the beginning and the last 20 minutes. Most of the middle was fairly slow.
I also watched Ringu yesterday. My impression of Ringu is that, in comparison, it's a rawer, unfinished work. The Ring is a better movie. Ringu offers nothing extra in scares or story, and The Ring seems to pull the mystical elements together better, and benefits from higher production values and effects. Ringu was dull in one place it shouldn't have been - when they get to the well. Oh, boy, 10 minutes of them hoisting buckets of water out. The Ring was much more effective.
As for those here and in the media that claim The Ring rips off other movies such as The Sixth Sense (1999) and Blair Witch (also 1999), note that RINGU was made in 1998, predating both of those, so the mystical kid and the grainy video were not copied from those movies. Many of the key images, such as of the well, and Samara walking towards & out of the TV, are right from RINGU.
And, watching some of the best parts of The Ring again today, I got to say that Naomi Watts has one of THE BEST screams in movie history!