The most psychologically terrifying movie I've ever seen

Rating: 9/10 (27 October 2006)

This movie scared the bujeezus out of me. That's saying a lot for someone like me, who has been watching horror movies since childhood. A lot of people may be disappointed that there is so little gore, but honestly, that is the very reason this movie is so great. This movie utilizes suspense and fear of the unknown in a way that I've never seen before.
The basis of the story goes as follows: A teenage girl is found dead, huddled in her closet. The friend who was with her that night is sent to a mental health facility. No one can explain what happened to either of the girls, so the grieving mother asks her sister Rachel, a reporter, to investigate for some answers. Rachel slowly pieces together the last few days of the dead girl's life and discovers that she and her friends all watched a mysterious videotape. She finds the tape and watches it herself. The video makes little sense and is mostly a series of frightening imagery and curious music. Immediately after she is finished watching, the phone rings. The voice on the other end whispers, "Seven days." For the next seven days, Rachel is subject to horrifying visions and physical anomalies, all while trying to uncover the truth behind "the videotape that kills you when you watch it". It's a race against time to save herself and her young son from a mysterious yet certain death.
The film utilizes suspense to frighten the audience. It's not immediately clear exactly what fate awaits those who've watched the tape, aside from the fact that after seven days, you will die. Visually, the movie uses subtle colors, causing the foreboding mood to nearly swallow the viewers whole. Imagery from the cursed video is reiterated throughout the movie in sometimes subtle, other times obvious ways. Fear of the unknown is the movie's weapon of choice. Gore is nearly non-existent; one of the images in the cursed video depicts a fingernail being torn from it's base, but it is shown in black and white and for less than a second. The only other time blood is used to terrify happens when a horse falls from a barge and is sucked into the spinning blades of the engine. Even this is not all that hard to watch, as all you can see is the water behind the vessel turning crimson a few moments after the horse goes under.
If you are tired of the same old Texas Chainsaw Massacres and Cabin Feveresque movies, check out The Ring. Psychological terror is far more disturbing than any limb-ripping bloodfest could be. You won't be able to sleep tonight.