Good if a little clashing in its personality.

Rating: Null/10 (21 October 2002)

I was almost ready to totally fall in love with this surreal fright fest. It has a lot going for it in its cold visual style, assured performances, and a story that is already begining to be copied by lesser American Films (I do admit the fact that I make that statement in reference to a lesser American Remake of supposedly superior original) But in the last ten minutes alone a couple of things began to pop out in my mind. Take for instance the fact that they make a message about parents not truly taking part in the lives of their children. Sure this might have been a part of the Japanese film, that I must admit I have not viewed but wish to see even more after seeing this version. But its hollow and reasonably foul to a story that was so cold dark and forboding. Another thing is what I shall now call the Vanilla Sky syndrome, the fact that American remakes of small foreign films feel the need to explain everything down to the most minor of details. Sure this film left some plot points more ambiguous but it helps add to the general creepiness of the experience in my opinion. Thats truly the only quibbles I had with this otherwise solid thriller. The look is great mixing some bastardized Japanese vision with that of any David Fincher film. The use of images from the cursed video and the race to find out the meanings of those images kept me entertained. Another thing to comment on was the PG-13 rating. Unlike lesser films this sort of benefits to mood of the piece, usually showing quick gory glances of Samara's victims than sustaing a shot is interesting. All in all a good film for a season which will probably soon be flooding in a pool of crap that the horror genre is usually associated with. Now lets hope American fans can get a legitimate release of the Japanese film on DVD. I hear the director of the original is miffed that it hasn't been released yet in America.