Quality of Horror and Plot over Quantity of Bad Horror is This Movie's Focus, and it Works

Rating: 7/10 (5 April 2016)

The Ring is a horror crime drama about a video tape that, if watched, will lead to death in seven days. It's a decent plot for a horror movie, and for the most part is quite well done.
The plot is, like I said, well done. It's not what you'd expect from a horror movie, as it's more focused on the mystery of the horror over actually scaring you. There aren't actually that many scary parts in this movie. So as far as the plot goes it was done in a more original way, and it was interesting to watch. The story of the horror itself wasn't terribly original, but it was good nonetheless.
The characters were pretty good, especially the main character. She's not a complete idiot (unlike in most horror movies), and she makes choices that are understandable. She does some stupid stuff, but nothing that would make her anything like the average horror movie girl. Everyone else is fine. There's enough screen time for them to show you what they're like, and there's only three major ones. The other ones you know aren't important so they aren't focused on.
The horror itself is good. There aren't a whole lot of cheap jump scares, and most of them are more startling and scary because of how the scary thing looks, not because of the surprise. As for how scary it is overall, it really isn't usually. If you're looking to be scared, you probably won't really be by this one.
Overall The Ring is good. It's an original take on the horror genre that I really appreciated, and while it isn't fantastic it's still very good. I'd certainly recommend this movie to anyone who likes horror, just don't expect some lame average horror, because it's anything but.