When her niece Katie dies suddenly for reasons unknown, Rachel initially dismisses her school’s concern for the welfare of her son Aidan as merely symptoms of the child’s grief. It is only when the teacher points out that Aidan was drawing pictures of the girl’s death BEFORE it happened that Rachel becomes curious. Whilst at the girl’s funeral, Rachel comforts the girl’s mother who is inconsolable with grief and bewilderment. The wretched woman begs Katie to try and find out what led to her daughter’s death, citing the woman’s job as an investigative journalist as the reason for asking her to do it.

As soon as the tape starts playing, the screen flickers and then comes to life with the strange image of a ring of light in the middle of the screen. This is followed by a selection of bizarre, seemingly random, nightmarish images. She sees the bodies of horses lying on a beach, a ghostly figure brushing her hair, a mass of maggots that become human beings and countless other strange images. Chilled by what she has seen, Rachel is startled by the ringing of the telephone. When she picks up the receiver, a single, child-like voice simply whispers “Seven Days” before terminating the call. Understandably frightened, Rachel decides to show the tape to her ex-husband Noah who dismisses it as a college prank. Nonetheless, eventually taken in by Rachel’s conviction, he agrees to help her analyse the images on the tape. As the pair begins to investigate the contents of the tape, they soon find themselves in the middle of a bizarre and horrific 40-year mystery, which threatens their very lives. It would seem that the only fact that they know at this stage is that before you die, you see the ring….

The Ring is a very curious movie indeed. Full of bizarre, fleeting imagery and strange clues, it doesn’t really wind up to a complete conclusion and leaves the viewer to draw a few conclusions of his/her own. I found many of the qualities in this movie that I love in horror films – subtlety and atmospherics rather than graphic violence and spattering blood. The Ring is successful because it keeps you intrigued and you never really know what is going to happen next. It is the anticipation of terrible things to come that will keep you watching this movie, rather than the recollection of events in the past.

Surprisingly enough, The Ring is actually only certified 15, which is an indication that there is nothing too graphic in this film, but I think a lot of people would still find it very unsettling. The brief images on the tape are quite disturbing and there are a few jumps and shocks that will catch you out. Statutory warning to animal lovers – there is a sequence featuring a horse that I thought was quite unpleasant and certainly wouldn’t be liked by equestrians. Visually, the film is very well put together – the camera seems to draw you into the proceedings and focuses on little details. Easily the most memorable sequence occurs about five minutes before the end, when the full power of the evil behind The Ring is exposed – it’s a corker! Mind you, The Ring isn’t entirely original in its approach, not least of all because it’s a remake of course. An apparent addition to the Western version is the appearance of the young boy Aidan, who seems to take on a partly psychic role in the story. Animals are demonstrated as having a sixth sense that detects evil, and the dark country of America continues to look as creepy as hell. The film isn’t free from little coincidences either. If I asked you whether you’d build a holiday chalet over the site of a disused well, I’m thinking that you’d probably say no – but not in this story.