Among recent horror films, subtle and genuinely creepy

Rating: Null/10 (23 July 2003)

Spoilers.
This film does small things splendidly, and gets major points for eschewing huge film FX overkill that has plagued supernatural cinema from the '90s on. The makers of The Ring should be on the lookout for a parcel of all our unused Starbuck's coupons for crafting a film that appeals to the devotee of the Last House on the Left and the original Cat People alike. In fact, The Ring feels like a summit, as if M. Knight Shamalyan (Mr. Sensitive) met David Cronenburg (Mr. Gutwrench), and the two agreed to split the telling of a good ghost story 70/30 to appeal to the broadest possible audience.

The Ring is, at its very best, a film of rich yet understated, indeed Lewtonesque moments. When the heroine picks a fly off the TV screen, after viewing the video several times and having seen clearly up to that point that the fly is a part of the recorded video image, her nose begins simultaneously to bleed. It is simple as can be, but a moment of supreme unease. And just after passing under a ladder propped against a wall on a downtown street, something clicks in the heroine's brain. De javu. She wheels about and places it as the exact ladder and wall setup from The Bad Video. The film is full of slight unsettling moments, such as these, that intelligently portend things dark, deep and grave as the heroine realizes her life and The Bad Video are beginning to intertwine.

The part I have mixed feelings about: Inevitably the format of the film merges into an investigative procedural. They simply had to make some gesture of explaining "Why?", I suppose. Well, I wasn't going to ask, and they didn't have to go there. She is an angry spirit, sure, a thwarted soul. Leave it at that. But, no, once we start being asked to ask, we want to know their theory on it at least. How is she different from any other angry spirit? Her father says, significantly, she wasn't supposed to have been born. This is left hang. The film creates a killer atmosphere of wonder, out of not letting us know. We are inundated by enough genuinely creepy stuff we don't stop to wonder about backstory. But once the film assumes the level of a detective story, that now very familiar X Files/CSI guys-with-flashlights plane, we may begin to feel that we are waiting for a very important message. Ultimately, I think their explanation is disappointing. The horror in this film is in our feeling during the trip, not our arrival at any particular destination.
The Ring is a welcome step out of the routine of crap like 13 Ghosts and the remake of The Haunting, films that give much sound and fury signifying nothing -- so beloved by generations of horror film fans -- a rotten name. I recommend The Ring with only small-quibble reservations. Seen in a year or two, totally clear of the hype, I think it will be more clearly seen as one of the best horror films in a while. Right now, the aftertaste of the films promotion and well-intentioned but blathersome audience buzz dilutes the purity of this delightfully creepy dark ride/deer-in-the-headlights experience.
9 of 10 stars.