Typical Inferior Americanized (Canadianized) Remake

Rating: Null/10 (1 September 2003)

This near miss borders between the genuinely creepy and the genuinely absurd. Director Gore Verbinski (Mouse Hunt, The Mexican, Pirates of the Caribbean) manages to give this film an eerie, ultra dark look, but it's impossible for the storyline to rise above the preposterous. Why the tape? Who makes the phone call? There are no answers to the unanswerable. And...just when you thought it would (and should) end, there's yet another failed attempt to explain what happened. The best thing I can really say is that this is a FAR better film than Darkness Falls, and has me curious to see Ringu (the Japanese film of which this is a remake of), which I'm sure is superior to this. Naomi Watts (Mullholland Drive) is pretty easy on the eyes too. I'll give 'er a 2.