CIRCLE OF DEATH = GIVING NEW MEANING TO "BE KIND & REWIND"

Rating: Null/10 (21 October 2002)

THE RING(2002) **1/2 Naomi Watts, Martin Henderson, David Dorfman, Brian Cox, Jane Alexander, Lindsay Frost, Amber Tamblyn , Rachael Bella, Daveigh Chase, Shannon Cochran. Somewhat disappointing yet stylishly rendered remake of the Japanese cult classic about a mysterious (and dangerous) videotape that inexplicably kills its viewer exactly seven days after watching it with Watts (who makes the most of her limited character) as a Seattle investigative news journalist who decides to pursue its meaning when her teenage niece suddenly expires from witnessing its contents. Mix `The Twilight Zone', `The X-Files', Hitchcock, `Stir of Echoes', `The Blair Witch Project', `Videodrome', and `The Sixth Sense' and pour on thickly is the result in this bizarre cocktail of suspense, dread, chills and a few good old-fashioned ghost story starts with some dreary production design effectively conceived by Tom Duffield, moodily dark cinematography by Bojan Bazelli and Hans Zimmer's pin prickly unnerving score definitively inhabits what should be a stellar spooky supernatural film but ultimately the screenplay by Ehren Kruger fails in the climactic final act which goes on too long with too many false endings. (Dir: Gore Verbinski)