Creepy, Post-Modern and Haunting.

Rating: 8/10 (18 October 2002)

Rule #1 of watching this movie - it is a remake with two subsequent sequels...it isn't meant to come to a neat conclusion. The "barn door" is left gaping open for part two at the end.
Rule #2- leave the kids at home unless you want to cough up for expensive therapy bills and remove your tv and phone from your house.
I am a big fan of horror films, and "The Ring" just about pushed me over the threshold of what I can stand in terms of scariness (still not sure if this is a good or bad thing). This is a beautiful, haunting, stylized and permanently mind-altering film.
As I sat in the theater, I was struck by the thought that "The Ring" will become this generation's "Psycho" or "Poltergeist." This film is no mere horror movie. "The Ring" embraces its forefathers of the genre, then proceeds to spin it's own near-therapy-inducing post-modern chills. One of the characters asks "Where does your mom keep her Vicodin?" You will be wishing you had some too after the first freaky, wicked-creepy flash of disturbing imagery.
What "Psycho" did for showers, "The Ring" does for tv's, (with a concious nod to "Poltergeist") vcr's, log cabins, forests, phones - you name it. Like Hitchcock, (note the homage to "Psycho" in Rachel's shower scene)the film does not derive its terror from gore or thrill kill - but rather through a painstakingly deliberate unfolding and revealing. "The Ring" was at times so dramatically tense and creepy, you felt you needed a break, but the director shows no mercy. (Yeah, and director-dude, thanks for all those "false scares," I really needed those in addition to all the other trauma).
There is much to praise about "The Ring," and it seems destined to become both a block buster and a cinephile's cult favorite. The film craft is excellent - stunning visuals, spot-on music and atmospheric noise, good script, good acting and masterful direction. "The Ring" is elevated above the typical genre film.
The myriad of meta-narrative and meta-cinematic elements only add to the meat of this film. Point 1- we are watching a movie about people watching a movie that kills them (and just wait till the home video! Try putting that in your VCR a second time). At numerous points in the film, it posits, and you think to yourself - will we the viewer die too, having seen "the tape??"
Also, interestingly, we mirror Rachel - we want to "show" people "the tape" (aka "The Ring"), but we don't want to "kill them" with being freaked out and emotionally scarred. We also mirror her process of discovery as we look back and try to piece the film together - I see flashes of the movie as concepts click into my comprehension.
The film does not explain everything, and to fault it for that I believe misses the point. There is much to ponder and discuss. You will want to see the originals, and simultaneously not want any more of those images in your head.
See it, but only if you want to carry Samara (is this a gloss for Samsara??) in your head forever.