There are worse ways to spend an evening (...or late night...)

Rating: 6/10 (17 October 2008)

Not one of the best horror-thriller films I've ever seen, but the acting performances and basic storyline were good enough to make it watchable. Plus, it had other elements I liked.
While the story's basic premise was sound, the script could have used work: primarily, I would have preferred a "deeper" storyline for Samara, the Morgans in general and the circumstances surrounding Samara's "partial" demise. I also thought it got a bit slow in places, and seemed to "jump" at points. I also wasn't too thrilled that Amber Tamblyn, one of my favorite young actors, got knocked off so early, but that's more personal than anything.
Naomi Watts turned in an excellent performance as did Brian Cox, who was quite believable in his role as the troubled and disturbed patriarch of the Morgan clan. Young David Dorfman's performance was eerie (which is good for a horror film). The only downer (if you could call it that) was Martin Henderson's performance - though it wasn't "bad", I felt they could have found someone a little better to take the role of Noah.
Nice touches: the "countdown"; Samara's "look"; Rachel's initial belief that 'all is well' when, in fact, it wasn't, followed by her subsequent (failed) race to get to Noah; and the scene at the very end showing resulting circumstance driving the "good guys" (Rachel and Aidan) to not be so good.
While "The Ring" doesn't come up to the level of many other horror-thrillers, there are just as many worse ones, and worse ways to spend an evening (...or late night...).