The sophisticated cousin of a large family

Rating: 7/10 (30 January 2005)

First, I saw The Ring. I stayed at my friends house, drinking coffee in her kitchen and talking about the movie, until 2am. I went home and slept with the light on. My curiosity, however, was piqued. My friend and I then rented Ring and Ring 2 to see how the Japanese versions stacked up. We watched them in her lounge room, alone, with the lights turned off, yet neither movie elicited in either of us the same response as the American version. To my, perhaps overly westernised view, each contained only one truly scary scene, in the first, the 'Sadako leaves the TV' scene, and in the second a scene where Anna appears as an oblivious ghost, but then turns around and looks at the main character.
I then read all the information I could find on the net, and then one day in Borders I saw the book had finally been translated and published here. It was a great read, very different from the movies, and, apart from being incredibly sexist (all the women in it are either evil or insipid, the Rachel Character is, of course, a man) one of the best contemporary stories I have ever read.
However, it opened my eyes to a plot hole I had ignored in the movies, which is; if Sadako/Samara wants everyone to know her pain and spread it like a sickness, why would she not SAY SO? In the book, the video is like a chain letter, featuring a "If you do not pass this on within 7 days, you will die" type warning, however, that part has been taped over by the teenagers as a prank.
Apart from that, and the odd inclusion of horses, and the fact that the DVD has a trailer of Catch Me If You Can as a Special Feature, it is a very scary, well done movie with brilliant sound and lighting, and a breath-takingly chilling performance by Daveigh Chase. Some of the story changes, such as Samara's mother being the one who put her in the well, and of Samara being killed when she was still a child, were good choices for this film.
Someone said here that the end is a disappointing sequel chaser, which is missing the whole point of any of the movies, and certainly of the original story- which was that "it won't stop". It will spread throughout the world like a virus, replicating a re-replicating itself until everyone has experienced the horror of Sadako.