Let me start by cautioning that this review is not for the faint of heart. Please be advised that the following paragraphs will open up various horrific possibilities to your otherwise mundane lives. For those of you that dare to ’’BELIEVE’’, be warned - if after reading this review, your phone rings - you have all of seven days to figure out what you want to do in life because at the end, alas, the prophecy of The Ring will consume you. For on the appointed day - 7 days from today, the day of your doom - you will end up looking like a poorly made up green-faced zombie having a bad hair day.
The Legend That Is The Ring
And now we’re at the opening scene. Two ordinary teenage girls are scaring themselves silly with urban legend stories. One of them talks about a videotape that purportedly kills people that see it. The tape contains a series of surreal, morbid imagery in a very Andy Warhol-esque portrayal. After a length of time, the tape goes blank and then the phone rings. Pick up the phone and a voice on the other end says you have seven days to live. The other girl says she’s seen it but think it’s just a prank by a sick individual. Sadly though, it’s not. Sure enough at the appointed hour, she dies, a gruesome death.
Now the dead girl has a cousin, a little boy that has had premonitions about her death all along. His mom Rachel (played by Naomi Watts), who is really the protagonist in the entire movie, is a reporter who gets wind of this urban legend and decides to get to the bottom of it. So she traces back to where the dead girl actually saw the tape, at a broken down motel in the woods - (strategic directorial move evidently to get the morbid ambience going) and goes to the exact same motel room, puts the videotape in the player and sees it. The images are not gory or bloody but are surprisingly scary. Some pretty impressive direction here. Well sure enough after Rachel finishes watching the tape, the phone rings, and she hears the ominous voice on the other end spelling out her doom. The tape scares Rachel enough to run back and get her ex boyfriend and the father of her son Noah involved, so she shows him the tape. And the phone rings again. She then discovers her son has seen the tape as well. Slowly but surely Rachel has fallen deeper and deeper into the spiral that is the Legend of the Ring. She has 7 days to live, 7 days to figure out what the curse of The Ring is about and 7 days to stop it.
What follows is a day by day harrowing account of the next 7 days of Rachel’s life. As each day progresses, Rachel finds that the images in the videotape gradually begin appearing in her day to day life. She slowly begins to realize she is living someone’s nightmare. And she needs to know why. With each day her determination to find answers increases as she pores through tons and tons of information to find out more about this unknown power - this invisible nemesis - that is threatening to take away her life and the life of her child. The depictions are fantastic - the subdued chroma color visuals and the overall gloominess depicted in the movie make for a chilling and very effective performance by the cast, sending shivers down one’s spine. At the end when everything appears to have come together, the director throws in the twist making for an open ended yet subtle ending leaving an already uneasy audience wondering what’s next.
Well as always I won’t take the edge away for those of you who havent had an opportunity to see this movie but I will say that if you’re one with a penchant for fright night grabbers, you will be entertained. What is evident in this film from the get go is the intensity that never lets you go. The toned down cinematography and the gray , dark foreboding imagery can creep you out far more than all the blood and gore in the world.
And my thoughts...
The Ring certainly chalks up brownie points for its excellent cinematography. The visuals contribute greatly to the ’’chill’’ factor and in my opinion reflect a great deal on the directorial superiority of this movie over other run of the mill horror flicks that seem to be popping out of the Hollywood horror flick assembly line. Actually I saw Final Destination 2 (I’m sure most of you have at least heard of this one) a month ago and boy was I amused. Put a bunch of flying body parts, an overdose of fake blood and some weak tasteless humor together - and you’ve got Final Destination 2. The Ring thankfully is a few thousand shades darker - and has all the elements of a scary movie, without the excess blood. Even if you’re a die hard skeptic unwilling to let your imagination run, this movie will creep up on you in a very subliminal sort of way just through the psychadelic visual offering. However if you are the kind that believes the phone will ring once you’re done watching the movie, be prepared to embrace insomnia for a few days. It’s very likely that your television and phone wont be your best friends for a while.
And the wretched phone....
TRRRRRRRRRINGGGGGGGGGGG...TRRRRRRINNNNGGGGGGGG.... Seven Days........
AHHHHHHH!!!!! Not me!!
Click.
The End.