Anachronisms abound...

Rating: 10/10 (24 November 2014)

Though it's only little over a decade old, THE RING is chock full of anachronisms: a VHS tape (analog, as opposed to the current digital dvds); a newspaper reporter who actually goes out and hunts down a story; a newspaper; a newspaper that actually prints the story that the reporter turns in; an implicit warning about the horrors of watching too much television; etc. Although it's an "Americanized" remake of a Japanese Fright Film, it's not dumbed down in the traditional manner of American remakes: it's superbly crafted, with some fine performances throughout; there's even a bit of suspense along the way. The opening scenes culminate with a real zinger (it surprised me back when I first saw it, and I was already familiar with RINGU). The makeup is VERY effective, by the way. Anyone who watches the tape that triggers the Horror has seven days to get their Earthly affairs in order. Rachel (Naomi Watts), the reporter, makes the mistake of showing the tape to her ex and, later, leaving her son alone with the tape- which he, too, watches. At this point, it's a race against Time as the Otherworldly occurrences commence. When Rachel tracks down the man ultimately responsible for everything, Morgan (Brian Cox), he tells her: "You take one person's tragedy and force the world to experience it. You spread it like a sickness." It's Morgan's dead daughter who's back from the dead, a "horse whisperer" who hated being in the barn with the horses that the Morgan family bred. THE RING is one of the better Fright Films of decades past, and it's still worth a look Today.
(Note: Yet another comment has been censored. Looks like someone- a lone individual- ain't none too happy with some of my comments. Be advised that ALL of my deleted comments are 100% accurate. They've been fact-checked by professionals. So much for "net neutrality...")