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The Ring

Review by Rob Sable
10.18.2002

Synopsis:

Imagine for a moment: Stephen King and David Lynch have gotten together for a couple of drinks, and after a few shots of straight Vodka, a pen-scribbled cocktail napkin or two would have the seed of what would become Gore Verbinski's The Ring.

Dreamworks' latest contribution to the horror genre is based on the first of a Japanese movie trilogy, 1998's Ringu, which, in turn was based on the first of a trilogy of books by Koji Suzuki. Surprisingly, the story elements have remained intact given Hollywood's less-than-spectacular track record with remakes. The only difference is that reportedly, Verbinski's version is a bit more literal and less subtle.

Naomi Watts (Mulholland Dr.) plays reporter Rachel Keller, a divorced, single mother of Aidan, played in perfect spook-monotone by David Dorfman. Recently, her niece Katie has passed away under mysterious circumstances. During the wake, Rachel's sister asks if she could find out anything regarding the death, refusing to believe that it was just a tragic accident. This leads Keller to Katie's friends who tell tales of a mysterious tape that, if you watch it, kills you seven days from the viewing. Those who watch the tape also get a cryptic phone call warning them of their impending death. Being a skeptic, Keller refuses to believe this latest urban legend. All of that changes once she travels to her niece's mountain vacation spot, finds the tape, and watches it. With only one week allowed, and the help of her ex-husband Noah (Martin Henderson) (who Rachel inexplicably lets watch the tape), she sets out on a quest to find the origins of the tape, solve it's inherent mystery, and ultimately, the true nature of her niece's death.

Verbinski has Watts and Henderson portray their characters with surprising subtlety given the circumstances. Rachel has a sense of quiet urgency, and Noah doesn't take the situation too seriously until he starts experiencing the same phenomena that haunted Rachel's niece and now Rachel herself. Dorfman will remind you of Haley Joel Osment in The Sixth Sense for reasons that will become painfully obvious once you see the movie. It's not completely fair to criticize anyone for this, they both play a similar character: a child with a shred of psychic ability that is central to the plot. It gets hokey at times, but at other times he does an excellent job. It'd make more sense if this plot point stayed true to the original Japanese story, in which the father has latent psychic abilities.

Visually, the movie is more on par with American Beauty than Scream. Cinematographer Bojan Bozelli, whose past work includes everything from 1988's Pumpkinhead to 1993's Boxing Helena, frames each scene in muted colors and goes for a few unconventional camera angles. There are points where Bozelli tends to get carried away; often you may be wondering if the movie is meant to be enjoyed aesthetically instead of by the virtues of the plot. But in this age of quick cuts, ornate locations, and colorful disguises, it's a refreshing change, one that you'll either appreciate or most likely not care about.

The contents of the tape the movie is centered around, as the movie's trailer suggest quite well, are series of seemingly random, foreboding imagery. Even Noah, who's a film expert, jokes that it's an over-ambitious student film. However, the origin of the imagery, how they relate to the curse, and their ultimate meaning are the very gruesome innards of the movie; not much else should be revealed for the sake of the movie's enjoyment, but it goes without saying that the character associated with the tape squeezes every drop of "creepy" from her scant amount of screen time.

The Ring stands out for many reasons. It's a horror movie that's coming out in a time when slasher movies are experiencing a wave of popularity not seen since the height of Freddy Krueger, yet it's much more in line with The Omen and The Exorcist in where it draws fear: the unseen and the unexplained, something that seems to defy most conventional wisdom regarding horror movies today. The Ring doesn't necessarily reach those earlier works in terms of raw quality, or in overall ability to scare audiences, but where it may fail in making you jump, it succeeds in making you uncomfortable and creating an unsettling atmosphere. Regardless, it's likely that this movie will draw repeat business simply so audiences can search for things they missed the first time, and perhaps to gain more insight into the perplexing ending which all but assures a sequel.

The Ring is rated PG-13 for language, violence, and, well, for being pretty creepy. It runs for approximately 110 minutes. And yeah, this review's light on plot points, but once you see this movie you'll understand why saying anything more would've ruined it all. Then you would've hated me, and God knows I have enough of those people already. A translation of the first novel in the Japanese trilogy is expected to be released in the United States in early 2003; the 1998 movie Ringu is available on region two DVD.

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