Slightly flawed,but generally effective Hollywood re-make of cult Japanese horror film

Rating: Null/10 (22 January 2004)

STAR RATING:*****Unmissable****Very Good***Okay**You Could Go Out For A Meal Instead*Avoid At All Costs
Investigative reporter Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts) loses her niece under mysterious circumstances.A short while after her funeral,her young son Aidan (David Dorfman) starts behaving disturbingly and she learns of the existence of a video tape that supposedly kills its viewer seven days post watching it.Initially sceptical,Rachel digs a little deeper in to the claim along with her seperated husband Noah (Martin Henderson) and unravels some disturbing evidence that suggests she may be wrong.
There were a couple of things clouding my judgement of this film before I'd even seen it.Firstly,it's a re-make of an original Japanese film and I was constantly dogged by the feeling throughout that I was just watching a poor glossy Hollywood imitation of a much better foreign film,much like the under-whelment I found after I enjoyed the 1993 film The Vanishing,only to learn it was a re-make of a French film of the same name (and by the same director).Secondly,the premise did seem rather far-fetched and preposterous.However,having watched the story unfold before me,The Ring did ultimately emerge as a very engrossing affair,with a premise that was just about on a par for a horror film,especially if you enjoyed a flick like 1992's Candyman.The film knows how to build it's suspense scenes successfully,creating a nervous sense of impending menace that does a fair bit to move you to the edge of your seat.It also offers a nice visual feel,especially in it's imaginative editing sequences and the dour filming style.When the scene comes when the contents of the tape are shown to us for the first time,the subliminal images we see and the way in which they are conveyed truly suck us in,especially when we associate them with the forboding mystery we are to learn about.The scares are extremely well-orchestrated,and so,of course,are all that more effective.
On the performances front,a no name cast carry off a worthy script convincingly,with all the right elements invested in their performances to keep us glued to the screen.
There are one or two minor hiccups with the end result.It's a little overlong,with an unnecessary last few minutes tacked on that lumbers us with an ending that leaves us a little short changed and out in the blue.There's also a rather cliched use of a little boy as one of the main protagonists that's been seen in one or two too many horror films in the past (The Sixth Sense and Identity,being two of the most recent) to have any effect.But generally speaking,it's superior Hollywood horror fare,genuinely frightening and unnerving,very well-made and a very successful translation of something that (sigh) I just know was probably much better the first time round.****