THE RING

The Ring Movie Review

Rachel (Naomi Watts Stay, King Kong), a journalist for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, investigates the mysteries surrounding a video tape--specifically, do people really die after watching it? This 2002 film ushered in a trend in Hollywood--American remakes of Asian horror (this one being a remake of the Japanese film Ringu), and, unlike many films that would follow, it did it the right way. The movie starts off with a bang, slowly builds a very intense and interesting story, and delivers a fantastic ending. For the most part the acting is pretty good in this movie. Watts does a fine job, as does David Dorfman (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre) as her son Aidan. The special effects in this film are really fantastic, and the film is genuinely scary, in particular the scene that is probably most well known.

You guessed it

I remember seeing this movie in the theatre when it came back and actually gasping and moving back in my seat when I saw this scene, and the scares and surprises don't end there. The Ring really was one of the first movies to be released with a PG-13 rating that was actually scary, and that still holds up to this day. Samara (the girl above) quickly became an iconic image in the realm of horror films, and for good reasons--she is a well-written, sympathetic yet evil, frightening character. There are times throughout the film when it drags a bit long (the run time is just shy of two hours), and some of the decisions the characters make are highly questionable, but these things are not enough to ruin the movie by any stretch. While The Ring may not be a perfect horror film, it is still an outstanding horror movie that, in many ways, paved a path for many films to come, and it still ranks among my favorite horror films of its time.

On A Scale Of One To Ten: 8

The Ring Movie Trailer