The opening sequences of this film emit false illusions into what the film could be like. Very 'Screamesque' like in appearance two teenage girls, Katie (Amber Tamblyn) and Becca (Rachael Bella) are in Katie's bedroom trying to scare one another by telling ghost stories.

The look on Katie's face not only tells us she's heard about it but she's seen it too.

Katie's auntie is Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts), an investigative newspaper reporter who has a son Aidan (David Dorfman). The relationship between mother and son is dysfunctional - Aidan even calls her Rachel, this is due to Rachel's dedication to her job and the lack of a father figure. The pair attend the funeral of Katie and Rachel tries to comfort her distraught sister Ruth.

Rachel hears Katie's freinds talking about how Katie had watched the weird video at a cabin 7 days before her death with 3 freinds. Her investigative efforts leads her to the shocking revelation that all four teenagers died at the same time on the same night and all from heart attacks. She delves deeper and finds a set of undeveloped photos of Katie's. She has them developed and the pictures reveal Katie and her friends all with horribly distorted faces posing in front of the cabin. She visits the cabin park and asks the owner if he had seen the teenagers in the night in question. While he goes to get the keys to the cabin in question she notices a videotape on a shelf and she takes it while the owners not looking. Rachel enters the cabin and whether you think its foolish or not she decides to watch the tape she snatched.

She takes the tape to her ex partner and father to Aidan, Noah (Martin Henderson). She explains the story behind 'The Ring' and the possible consequences of watching it but Noah agrees to watch it and help her anyway.

The main character in the film Rachel Keller is played by Naomi Watts. I have only seen her once before in 'Mullholland Drive' and she is one of the up and coming actresses around. She doesn't play the stereotypical dumb blonde who screams at every turn (thankfully) in fact she's exactly the opposite. She keeps her cool and is smart, she slowly but surely pieces together the tragic story behind the video which encompasses The Ring's content. She is the emotional lynchpin of the film, effectively displaying emotions such as frustration, jealousy, vulnerability and humanity. Her coherance is vital because there's plenty of surprises in store for her and some of them scared me more than her. If anything she appears too smart at times, coming to correct conclusions and assumptions that any normal person would never do.

David Dorfman who plays the kid Aidan did a very good job even if his character is heavily borrowed from by other films I care to mention like 'Sixth Sense' and 'The Others' for instance. It seems all supernatural thrillers have to have a kid who is mentally attached to the plot thesedays. Despite that, the kid did well. His deadpan face, his precocious style and his basin haircut gives him an image and an eerie presence about him.

I liked this film very much, I would go as far to say it is one of the best thrillers I have ever witnessed. Ok there are faults but when you think about it there are faults in any film, even the classics like 'The Shining'. I think this film will be the best film of it's type in 2003 and will go down as a classic.

Another thing worth mentioning about the film is the clever way the direction draws parallel over several different angles such as how the mystery brings Rachel closer to her son who she seems mentally cut away from and also how her relationship with Noah begins to revive as they work together against The Ring and also how the truth of The Ring crosses events from the past into events in the present and how and why they are happening.

Genuinely scary films are so hard to find thesedays, the market has been far too saturated with teen - slasher movies for way too long. It's good to see a film working on your mind and concentrating on increasing the tension by using good cinematography and direction. The Ring is far from perfect and has a few questions that lay unanswered after the film had finished but I personally felt entertained and had been given a working over mentally. I definately detected an atmosphere in the cinema I watched it in - you could hear a pin drop as the audience was engrossed which enhanced my overall view of the film because it's a rarity thesedays unfortunately.

'Here we go, the world is spinning,, when it stops it's just beginning, sun comes up, we all laugh, sun goes down, we all die'