The Ring

Movie Name: The Ring

Year of Release: 2002

Director: Gore Verbinski

Stars: Naomi Watts, Martin Henderson, David Dorfman, Brian Cox, Jane Alexander, Lindsay Frost, Amber Tamblyn, Rachael Bella, Daveigh Chase, Shannon Cochran

Genre: Horror, Mystery

Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 7
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Synopsis:

Following the middling success of his previous directorial effort, "The Mexican", director Gore Verbinski rebounded with what turned out to be a great hit. "The Ring" inaugurated a trend of remaking Japanese horror films, with a western perspective. The film follows the story of Rachel Keller, an investigative reporter living in Seattle with her young son Aidan. They both get some dramatic news, when Katie, Rachel's young niece dies suddenly and gruesomely. Rachel's sister asks her to investigate how Katie passed away, and Rachel discovers this videotape that was seemingly haunting Katie's last days. She discovers that anyone who watches the tape has only seven days to live, upon which something happens which kills the viewer of the tape. Rachel watches the tape, and suddenly all sorts of incidents start occurring, prompting her to investigate where the tape comes from, and in particular, who is the young girl on the tape. This leads her to investigate the story behind the family of the girl, and her sad demise.
"The Ring", to this day, remains one of the most interesting adaptations/remakes of a Japanese horror film. The film takes the scary and juicy premise, but adapts it to a very North American context. It specifically makes the central character, Rachel Keller, someone interesting, flawed and persistent. Naomi Watts also makes the character eminently watchable - she's self assured, but as the events start to unravel, her level of certainty starts quivering, and at the end she's definitely a character who has changed as a direct result of the events depicted in the film. The film is also very successful at building an ominous environment, as the background to the events on the videotape are exposed and explained. The film also benefits from the stylistic touches from the director Gore Verbinski, something that is further added by the impeccable cinematography of Bojan Bazelli and the fantastic score of Hans Zimmer. An interesting film worth watching.