well-made and scary until the disappointing ending

Rating: Null/10 (16 February 2003)

Film starts very promising and succeeds in haunting you and giving you an uneasy feeling. Visually well made (director also filmed "The Mexican`) and Naomi Watts is a good lead, especially in the beginning when she (still) is the tough reporter. The `ring-video' itself is creepy in a bunuel-style way. An entertaining and haunting film until - well, until the end, or shall I say the second (or even third) ending. unfortunately the makers of `the ring' for whatever reasons felt the urge to top the scenes which seemed to be a smooth and well-fitting ending for the film by . I will not spoil it, go and see yourself. but this is really ridiculous and laughable. And, come to think of it, there are holes in the story you can drive a whole video-store through. No satisfying explanation what was really going on. Very disappointing ending but still - apart from that - `the ring' is an entertaining movie which delivers thrills and not too much gore.