Not bad at all!

Rating: 7/10 (23 May 2008)

I've been a fan of the original Ring (Ringu here), and sure The Ring doesn't meet up to the quality of the original, but this is still a solid horror movie and an adaptation if you want to compare.
Ringu drew the horror with its intense mood (rather than shock/jumping scenes), and The Ring doesn't fail at doing it either. Acting is solid, and the music is as creepy as the original. It is definitely a "different" type of horror movie than the traditional American "slasher" films, and I'm sure both horror movie fans and non-horror movie fans can enjoy (and be scared) this film.
The downside is that the plot was almost as I expected, leaving me with nothing new to take away. I guess its unfair to judge it this way, since it is an adaptation, but I did hope that the director would add some kind of change that made The Ring distinct from Ringu.
Also, I felt that the presence of Samara was very toned down compared to Ringu. In Ringu, Sadako was an angry girl that I would wet my pants upon meeting, but in the Ring, Samara seemed almost like a sad girl with a sad past and no more. I'm sure other people would disagree, but at least the character of Samara did leave me with less fear for compared to Sadako (which was borderline traumatizing). But in either case, fans of American horror films would most likely feel a lack of impact that the main villain would leave, compared so lets say Freddy Krueger.
Otherwise, its still a solid movie. I suggest anybody to watch it for a taste of so-called J-Horror adaptation.