I’m not really one of those people who has to sleep with the lights on after watching a horror film. There’s nothing scary about your average, unimaginative Nightmare on Elm Street type stuff. Killers with joke shop type gimmicks, hockey masks or unfeasibly long fingernails, chase spoilt and quite stupid teenagers round houses with too many unlocked doors and dark basements. So many of them are the film equivalent of paint by numbers.
Sitting down to watch The Ring, I was preparing to laugh my way through similar silliness as soon as the opening scene started with two teenage girls discussing an urban myth about a video tape. Apparently when someone watched this video, just after it finished they would get a phone call and the voice on the other end of the line would tell them they had seven days to live. Oooh spooky. So sure enough one of the girls has seen the video and the next thing we know she’s dead. So far, so typical teen horror flick.
The dead girl’s aunt, Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts) happens to be a reporter for a Seattle newspaper and on overhearing some of her niece’s friends talking about this killer video she decides to look into it. Her initial investigations lead her to an isolated motel in some bleak country location where she finds the video, and somewhat foolishly settles down to watch it. It’s a fairly haunting set of bleak black and white, Dali-esque images no real gore but pretty creepy. No sooner has the tape ended than the phone rings and she’s given her seven day warning.
This is where the film really takes off, Rachel enlists the help of her ex-boyfriend and father of her own rather creepy child, to try to get to the bottom of the mysterious video. While the days tick down they become deeper and deeper involved in the horrible origins of the video. As is so often the way there’s a sinister little girl involved and I have to say it really is quite chilling.
There’s a definite absence of blood and gore here, which is a good thing, instead the fear comes from the atmospheric settings, the constant mist and greyness and the sheer supernatural nastiness of it all. You’ll be on the edge of your seat, but not waiting for the next lot of fake blood to spatter over the screen. Think Blair Witch meets The Omen, with a dab of The Others thrown in and you’ll have some idea of what to expect.
Based on the original Japanese film, Ringu, this is an imaginative and haunting film. Even as the end draws near and it seems as if we’re heading towards the happy ever after ending as the sun comes up, there’s another surprise in store.
If you like your horror in the style of Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer then you might be disappointed in this, it’s far more subtle. But it will leave you jumping up to switch the lights on as soon as it’s finished.
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Postage & Packaging: free Super Saver Delivery Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
![The Ring [DVD] [2003]](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/78523730.jpg "The Ring [DVD] [2003]")
Aug 16th, 2003
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