::shudder::

Rating: Null/10 (28 January 2003)

I'll give this movie its credit. It's probably the best horror movie of 2002, and certainly beats out "Darkness Falls" and "They" of 2003. (Those movies looks unbelievably stupid...and I have no will to see them.)
"The Ring," on the other hand, is another story. It's basically about a videotape that people watch, and seven days later they (mysteriously) die. A phone call after they watch the video warns them about this. After the mysterious death of her niece, Rachel (Naomi Watts) watches the tape, gets the call...but decides she won't put up with it. She's determined to stop her death and figure out the damned video tape. What she experiences is a deep, twisted story of the Morgan family, and their little girl Samara (played eerily by Daveigh Chase, the voice of Lilo!).
Spoilers!
The movie has a genuinely creepy atmosphere. The videotape itself brought me to chills. It's a very disturbing tape, and the little Samara that supposedly created it with her mind, is even more disturbing. Every part is played well, though Naomi Watts's character did not much more than investigate and gasp every once in a while.
The special effects are good as well. When they show Rachel's niece dead in the bathroom, it looks so gruesome that I jumped. (I'm not one for jumping, either.) And when Samara comes out of the TV...well, I was impressed with the special effects, but mostly creeped out. It was so freaky. The girls sitting behind me in the theater screamed. It wasn't THAT scary...but it was pretty scary.
Ironically enough though, after people watch the video tape, three days later they get a nosebleed, signaling them that their death was coming. I actually got a nosebleed on the third day after seeing the movie--no kidding. And I was freaked out enough by this film to check for handprint-burns on my arm the next coming days. (People who've seen the movie know why I'd expect that.) So, I was scared.
I didn't die, obviously. :)
All in all, this movie was a well-made, well-carried-out horror film, with genuinely eerie moments and atmospheres. The acting is great, the special effects are great...and the movie itself is great. Most likely, you'll want to check it out.