Liked it a lot, but had issues with the final act...

Rating: Null/10 (21 November 2003)

Might contain spoilers...
I really liked the movie from a film making perspective. It really had a nice atmosphere and was wonderfully photographed (it really did feel like it took place in late fall/early winter in Washington State). The makeup and effects were really well used, and the music and sound effects gave it a perfect atmosphere.
My big issue is the last act. It feels like a cheat. Halfway through the movie morphed into a nice mystery and climaxed with a really cathartic scene where Naomi Watts' character discovers what really happened to the girl on the video. She goes through hell to get to the bottom of the mystery of the Morgan family in order to save her own. After all that build up and the emotional journey you have taken with these characters into this living nightmare, it just felt like a huge cheat when the movie kept going past its logical end and turned back into a traditional horror story in the last little bit. What was the point of her unraveling the mystery when the tape was just a really nasty chain letter? And if it was just a chain letter, why would the evil spirit hide the fact that copying it was the only way to live? If the person KNEW that was the deal, they'd be more apt to make copies and it would spread faster (and plot wise it would lead to some nice scenes of the characters agonizing over if they should make a copy and live, or sacrifice their life to destroy the tape once and for all). The ending just felt wrong. The other 3/4 of the movie I loved, however.