THE RING (DIDIER BECU)

Rating: 7/10 (29 February 2004)

Advertised as a horrormovie with a high intelligencegrade "The Ring" became one of the biggest hits on the horrorvideocircuit and for those who have their doubts it arises above the average horrorstandard. In fact I was asking myself if it really should have been categorized as horror as most of the times director Gore Verbinski (the man from "Pirates of the Carribean") creates a sort of style in where some David Lynch-style is certainly there! The story itself is simple...there is a videotape around and once you saw it you will die within 7 days. Most of the directors would have made a sort of Friday The 13th with it but director Gore Verbinski let us investigate why such a videotape is made, where it comes from and it is here where the viewer will undersrtand some bits but not the whole thing, not that there is any need to understand the "Eraserhead"-like movie that will kill you once you've seen it. "The ring" is a Hollywoodversion from some Japanese cultmovie "Ringu" and Verbinski did a well job but only he should have chosen some better actors though, and not someone like Naomi Wats.