Impressively Restrained

Rating: 7/10 (5 January 2004)

Most horror movies suck.
Its sad, but true. The average horror movie has absolutely no respect for its audience, is seemingly aimed at pre-teens, and not very bright ones at that, and is full of cheap scares, ridiculous characters who don't act a bit like anyone you know, and when all else fails, maybe some bad CGI or a bucket or two of fake blood.
The Ring is different, and for that reason alone it earned my respect. Was I really scared by it? No, not really (although the climatic ending was appropriately jump inducing). But it did a great job of maintaining an atmosphere throughout of "wrongness". Nice soundtrack work, quick cuts, disturbing images, just enough revelation, kept the world feeling just a little off, and a little creepy.
Unfortunately, not much happened, and what you had was a movie long on atmosphere, but almost boringly devoid of chills. But its not often I have the pleasure of making that complaint about anything not arthouse, so I'll gladly take the tradeoff.
Overall a well made, mature, horror film. Just maybe lacking in excitement at times.