Gore Verbinski never lets 'The Ring' breathe on its own like Hideo Nakata did with the original, which leaves the film floundering in a well of largely wasted potential...

Rating: 6/10 (5 May 2005)

The Ring
Rachel Keller (a decent Naomi Watts) is a reporter who, while working on an article about an urban legend involving a videotape that kills whomever watches it, starts to investigate the unexplained sudden death of her niece, Katie (Amber Tamblyn). Rachel is understandably reluctant to buy into the rumour, and as soon as she finds the tape down at a holiday cabin where Katie and her friends stayed a week before they all died, she watches it without hesitation. But then the phone rings, and Rachel discovers just how much truth there is behind the talk after all. Now, she has just seven days to live, and with the help of her ex-husband, Noah (Martin Henderson, acting far too cocky), Rachel must delve deep into the mysterious origins of the tape, before it threatens to destroy her.
Considering how many previous incarnations of Kôji Suzuki's 'Ring' universe there are, it's quite surprising that America didn't try to pull off their own adaptation of this story earlier. The very first part of this saga was originally brought to the big screen in 1998's 'Ring'. Directed by then-unknown Japanese filmmaker Hideo Nakata, 'Ring' was a masterpiece of the horror genre, and its runaway box office success helped to set a trend for the dozens of slow-burning thrillers to come out of Asia in the last few years, including its own remake from Korea ('Ring Virus'). So, with the benefit of hindsight, Hollywood producers have also cleverly chosen to translate Nakata's take on 'Ring' for native multiplex audiences. Their choice of director, however, is not as sharp, as they have recruited Gore Verbinski to replicate Nakata's subtle hand. But, as the presence of 'Mousehunt' on his filmography shows, "subtle" is not a word that first comes to mind when thinking about this inexperienced filmmaker.
Verbinski, a former director of music videos and commercials (I'll refrain from using the word "hack"), is by no means a complete lost cause in the world of 'The Ring'. Armed with tens of millions of dollars, Verbinski is free to design the film's visual and sound schemes with impressive precision, even more so than Nakata did with the original. Every frame of this film has something to keep itself moving along, with the omnipresent greyish green tones adding an interesting flare to the opening sequence. But they remain on the screen throughout the whole running time, and only serve to distract the audience from Rachel's Nancy Drew-style investigations in and around dreary Seattle. There's also some unneeded editing tricks (such as brief flashes of "the ring" between scenes) that really do recall Verbinski's music video past, and, disappointingly, a couple of equally cheap "boo" moments, which siphon off much of the tension and pace that 'The Ring' should have been made of, and that the original had in spades. Granted, Nakata could easily be accused of some of these tactics, but at least he used them in all the right places. Verbinski never lets 'The Ring' breathe on its own like Nakata did, which leaves the film floundering in a well of largely wasted potential.
Even worse, some parts of the film are touched up with expensive special effects in place of the grimy, practical realness of the original. It's never a good thing when CGI draws attention to itself, particularly during the film's climax, which was so unrelentingly terrifying in the original, but here feels forcibly rushed and artificial. In fact, everything about 'The Ring' is far too dressed up with Hollywood production values, when simplicity was the key to making the first 'Ring' so unsettling. Call me a purist of the original if you must, but whose idea was it to give 'The Ring' to a man whose only truly inventive moment was when he created the Budweiser frogs?
The script, by Ehren Kruger ('Scream 3'), shows as much promise, but this goes down the drain with the direction. Kruger elects to completely revise the background of Sadako (renamed Samara for this remake), and I welcomed these tweaks, as they would keep the unfolding mystery interesting even for those who already knew how things would turn out. The downside comes when Kruger feels the need to explain everything, from what the film's title means, to why the tape waits seven days to kill. There are even some small lines of "comic" relief present in 'The Ring', which seem entirely out of place considering the mood the film is trying to muster. Kruger is far too concerned with catering to western audiences, and never takes that crucial step away from the genre rules to really make a mark.
I'm tempted to applaud the makers of 'The Ring' for not dumbing down the material too much, and preserving just a little of the original's integrity. But on the other hand, I'm also annoyed that the sheer creepiness and ambiguity of Hideo Nakata's film has been watered down so much for easier consumption. 'The Ring' was an apt opportunity to blend the potency of the original with Western horror traditions, but Verbinski and Kruger just aren't up to the task, and this remake has ended up as what the original never once was: a mess. If producers ever decide to create a sequel (the twist ending has been retained), hiring a director and writer with some genuine prowess in horror film-making would be much desired.
~ 6/10 ~