SCREENPLAY: Ehren Kruger (‘Scream 3’)

PLOT: Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts- Nicole Kidman’s friend) is a single mother who hears about a killer videotape which causes people to die exactly a week after they have watched it. First they get a phone call straight after they have viewed it telling them that they will die in 7 days, then they suffer a tormented wait, before one last phone call on their 7th day and then…well we don’t know exactly what happens until the end, but they die. Obviously.
Anyway, back to Rachel. She immediately becomes an investigator into the videotape after watching it and then realising that, yes, she IS going to die (duh…). So with the help of Noah Clay (Martin Henderson) she tries to begin to unravel the mystery of the tape before her time is up. Unfortunately problems are made worse by the fact that her son Aidan (David Dorfman) just happens to find the tape (which, incidentally, she copied) and watches it himself. Oops…
Frantic, Rachel and Noah have to race against time getting embroiled in a complicated tale involving horses, parents and a sad little girl to try to find out how to stop their own deaths, and Aidan’s. The question is, can they figure out what the answer is?

OTHER INFORMATION:

OVERALL OPINION: As a fan of horrors even though they scare me almost to death in terms of paranoia afterwards I would say this is a fairly good attempt. Unfortunately as I haven’t seen ‘Ringu’ I can’t make any comparisons over which is the better of the two- I can only judge this one.
It certainly has the effect of making you wary after the film, despite the fact you know it isn’t true, but I have to admit I was only freaked out for a few hours after watching it, not a few days as after some horrors! For me, this wasn’t really scary until the end, a bit like ‘Blair Witch’- no real fear-inducing moments until that final scene!
Yes there are some disturbing images and characters that will haunt you ( great peformance by young Daveigh Chase I thought- even though she doesn't have to say much, she gives the film half of it's uneasy feeling) but one of the biggest feelings I ended up having was of sadness for the events that led up to the videotape.
In terms of the other performances I felt there was nothing partcularly oustanding- the characters were fairly stereoptypical for a horror (single mum with new male in life, wide eyed troubled young son etc) and therefore there was nothing new explored in terms of acting for this genre. The performances were good and full of spirit, but nothing special.
This appears to be the first real horror Gore Verbinski has directed and I certainly give him top marks for effort as this is a fantastic film, but comedies such as ‘Mouse Hunt’, the Budweiser frogs (yes, he created them!) and thrillers such as ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ may have the most success for him so far. However, we have yet to see what else he can do in the horror genre…
If you enjoy your horrors with a touch of the surreal, whilst still maintaining a grip on reality and not much in the way of gore then I suggest you try this one- it’s dark, compelling and more than a little emotion inspiring. If on the other hand you like a load of blood and gore (as I do!) and more to do with the physical jumpy side of horror, then this may not be for you…
When you do watch it though, don’t be surprised if you’re just waiting for the phone to ring afterwards!