Movie fanatic.
Worked at the Sundance Film Festival 2003.Best time ever!!
Favourite film of all ti...
Movie fanatic.
Worked at the Sundance Film Festival 2003.Best time ever!!
Favourite film of all time is Jaws.
Member since:12.03.2003
Reviews:10
Members who trust:1
By now, most people will have seen 'The Ring', starring Naomi Watts. I am not one of those people-I'm one of those sad gits who maintains that the original will always be better than the remake-and having now seen the original version, Ringu, I'm sticking to my guns!
For those who don't know the story, Ringu is set around a kind of urban myth-a cursed videotape-which causes the viewer to die seven days after watching it (no Batman & Robin jokes,please!).
Of course, it is not just a myth, as we find out within the first five,excruciatingly tense minutes, as two girls sit alone in a house talking about the tape. One of them, as it turns out,watched the tape the previous week,and the girls get edgy when the phone rings at the exact time she watched the tape,7 days later. Of course,the phone is a red herring,leading to the girl's friend going off to the loo & leaving her alone,for the gruesome hack & slash death to...oh wait-this isn't a typical mtv generation horror movie after all-there is no hack & slash-instead we get the girls look of pure terror & one of the coolest 'leave it to your imagination' moments in a film for years!
At this point I was glued to my seat,or at least the end of it, as the girl's Aunt Reiko-a reporter-becomes involved. It turns out she was already investigating the myth & quickly puts two & two together after hearing that her neice's friends all died a bizarre death too.
After looking at some unsettling photos of her niece,taken at the cabin where they watched the tape,Reiko heads there,foolishly watches the tape,and gets the 'seven days' phone call warning.
She quickly involves her ex husband,who is slightly psychic as it turns out,who also watches the tape & gets Reiko to make him a copy to study. This is where it all goes to pot,as Reiko's young son watches the tape, adding to their sense of urgency.
This leads to a lightning fast investigation by the pair,before Reiko's time is up & they lose out to the tape.
I won't spoil the film any more by revealing what they find,or how it ends,but this is,for the most part, a very good horror film.
It's refreshing to see a film which relies on psychological,rather than physical horror,for its scares,though I'm not sure what the Scream generation will make of it.
The tape footage itself is unsettling without showing anything remotely offensive-it relies on your imagination to do the work-and does so to great effect. I should also mention that the one time you see what happens to the person when they are killed is THE most spine tingling moment in cinema history!
The final revelation of the film is the only flaw I can find in Ringu-it is simply over too quickly. Literally one minute from the end,Reiko puts it all together & speeds off to save her son,leaving us wondering where the last reel of the film went. This will probably make more sense to anyone who has seen the film,but it felt like the ending was a setup for a sequel or two & that was kind of annoying.
Still,a horror film with no blood OR physical violence that STILL scares is a very rare thing indeed, and I'd recommend this film to anyone who loves a good fright,but be warned,it is subtitled as well as scary!
I just wonder if the American remake is anywhere near as good!
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Production Year: 2000 - Horror - Director: Keenen Ivory Wayans - Original Language: English - Classification: 18 years and over - Starring: Carmen Electra, Anna Faris, Kurt Fuller, James Van Der Beek, Keenen Ivory Wayans
Apr 7th, 2003
very helpful by (100%):
