The Ring Review
by Mark R. Leeper (markrleeper AT yahoo DOT com)November 15th, 2002
THE RING
(a film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: Investigating a strange urban legend that seems to have come true enough to bring about a death, a news reporter finds a strange path of sinister clues involving a bizarre surrealistic videotape. This is a remake of a very strange Japanese horror film. This is a somber and cold piece of eerie horror that has more edge than most American horror the public gets these days. Rating: 7 (0 to 10), +2 (-4 to +4)
It is said that in technology that the new ideas come from the United States, but that Japan is more clever about marketing them. An example is the VCR, which was developed in the United States. The Japanese, however, took over the market and made it their own far more effectively than the Americans did. In the field of films, and particularly horror films, the sides soon may well be reversed. The American and even the European horror film tends to fall into ruts doing many of the same plots over and over with variations mostly in style. How many films have a vampire resurrected, he threatens people, and then he is killed by some trick? How many films have a stalker, human or supernatural, killing people in sequence? There are certainly some variations in style, but the same basic stories get repeated all too frequently. These days if you want bizarre and fresh ideas in horror films, not always ones that work, but at least they are new, my recommendation would be to look at the Japanese horror film. Japanese horror filmmakers--once content to make endless versions of THE GHOST OF YOTSUYA--now seem to be making the most original horror films. American filmmakers may well in the future find themselves borrowing ideas from Japanese horror film.
In THE RING there is a popular story, apparently an urban legend. The legend says that if you watch a particular videotape with strange surreal visual images, then as soon as you finish it you get a phone call telling you that you have just seven days to live. Sure enough, just seven days later you really do die. A teenager who sees the tape is skeptical, but in fact dies just 168 hours later. This brings newspaper reporter Rachel Keller (played by Naomi Watts) in to investigate the strange tape and clear up the mystery of the tape's origin. Rather than clearing things up, she finds herself in a deeper and deeper mystery involving the images on the tape.
We go along with the investigation with the sometime too- convenient clues fitting together in ways that seem not to make sense. For once we have a story that works with the weird and unexpected rather than with gore. This is a horror film with ideas but with little gore beyond nosebleeds. As Keller's investigation continues, we find a lot of what is on the tape making more sense, but there is a lot that is not explained in the film. Perhaps we understand the images on the tape, but there is a lot that still does not make sense about the very existence of the tape and why it has its powers. We are given enough to believe everything is explicable, but there is still a lot that never gets explained. It is expecting too much that all will be clear in the end. Odd details are added too quickly and with too much abandon for that to be true. Easy answers do not fit into this strange spirit world of the ring.
Gore Verbinski directs THE RING with a cold but effective style. Somewhat like SIGNS of earlier this year, tension is created over the unknown and the unexpected. The fear is not so much of physical danger, but of just the impenetrability of the mystery. Every outdoor scene seems to take place in mist or rain. The viewer feels a palpable and tangible physical chill. The quick eye catches Verbinski throwing in subliminal images, particularly of the ring itself.
In supporting roles are Jane Alexander of TESTAMENT and the creepy Scotish actor Brian Cox, the screen's first Hannibal Lector (curiously spelled "Lecktor" in RED DRAGON). THE RING is a real departure from the usual fare of American horror films. While I personally find it very difficult to really be frightened by any horror film, this film certainly caught me with an air of tension. I rate it a 7 on the 0 to 10 scale and a +2 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
[email protected]
Copyright 2002 Mark R. Leeper
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
