Read User Reviews and Submit your own for The Ring (2002)

8

SamOct 20, 2005

A pretty good movie when it comes to plot and acting, but what about the scares? Or should I say, what scares? It's not scary whatsoever, it's just an entertaining, well done dissapointment, because I heard so many people say it A pretty good movie when it comes to plot and acting, but what about the scares? Or should I say, what scares? It's not scary whatsoever, it's just an entertaining, well done dissapointment, because I heard so many people say it was TERRIFYING or PEE-WORTHY and it's not even close to any.… Expand

1 of 1 users found this helpful

4

MovieMasterEddyApr 3, 2016

Before you die, you see 'The Ring,' " as the ads for this American remake of a famous Japanese suspense film tell us. With ads like this, the movie has certainly built up a lot of anticipation. But while impressively made, this impassive andBefore you die, you see 'The Ring,' " as the ads for this American remake of a famous Japanese suspense film tell us. With ads like this, the movie has certainly built up a lot of anticipation. But while impressively made, this impassive and cold feature fails, in a spectacular fashion, to deliver the thrills.

The film, which opens nationwide today, is about an urban legend that has come to life: whenever a mysterious, unlabeled videotape is run, its unlucky viewer gets a phone call just after seeing it. The voice on the other end of the phone says simply, "Seven days." It's how long the viewer has to live — and the corpse looks like something out of a Francis Bacon daydream.

When her niece dies after seeing the tape, Rachel (Naomi Watts), a Seattle reporter, decides to investigate the rumors. And that's when "The Ring" begins its downward spiral. She watches the freakout videotape, which looks like a director's cut of "Closer," the video that starred the band Nine Inch Nails, complete with suffering animals, a fly crawling across the screen and static-ridden flash cuts. As music-video effluvia goes, this tape is not even as unnerving as the outfits Lenny Kravitz wears to the VH1 fashion awards.

Much of what follows consists of close-ups of the clues that Rachel, desperate to beat the clock and stay alive, sifts through to solve the mystery. The screen-filling shots of newspaper headlines and photographs chronicling the grisly deaths could be from a different kind of horror movie: "Night of the Working Dead," starring Nancy Drew.

Initially, Ms. Watts, the versatile star of David Lynch's "Mulholland Drive," does a fine job of communicating Rachel's off-putting toughness. Under the best of circumstances, she scares everyone but her son, Aidan (David Dorfman), and based on the dark circles under his eyes and his solemn, old-man's enunciation, he's got problems of his own. But once it becomes clear that tight-jawed anxiety is surprisingly the only note on her piano, the movie feels numbed. Eventually, the phone calls don't even generate the anxiety of telemarketer hits that come during dinnertime.

The director, Gore Verbinski, stages the opening with a tribute to "Scream," which itself was a tribute to "When a Stranger Calls" — the first scam thriller in which every single scare was in the movie's trailer. Perhaps the most puzzling thing about "The Ring" is that it seems to assume that horror-movie audiences have no memory.

David Dorfman, with his "Village of the Damned" haircut and precocious maturity, seems to have studied at the Haley Joel Osment School of Fine Acting. Though there are a few chilling moments — one big scene involving a horse on a ferry is spectacular — everything in "The Ring" feels recycled, including the picture's look and tone, which are reminiscent of "The Blair Witch Project." "Ringu," the Japanese original of "The Ring," preceded and probably inspired "Blair Witch." Copies of the director Hideo Nakata's 1997 cult classic have made the underground circuit like the deadly videotape that fills the center of the plot of "The Ring."

"Ringu" felt like an era-defining scare picture: whispers about its imminent remake have been drifting through chat rooms since word of its existence first made it to America. But the real spark came from the "Closer" video. And "Closer," the director Mark Romanek's grim, romanticized nightmare, with its well-appointed nihilism — honey dripped over Buñuel — was the perfect integration of visuals and the morose showmanship of the Nails leader Trent Reznor.

At least the channeling of "Ringu" in "The Ring" is reverent. Unfortunately, there are other problems. Mr. Verbinski can assemble a movie like a machine, which worked for the scare comedy '`Mouse Hunt." But here, the mechanical assembly simply emphasizes how devoid of feeling the film is. One particular scene is just such a hollow set piece: a mentally handicapped young man pushes himself backward on a carousel while yet another crucial nugget of plot information is delivered. "The Ring" is there to be admired instead of to creep you out. There's also much huffing and puffing to add a psychological underpinning to the plot.

"The Ring" also rejects the fear-of-girls stain that covered its original. The cinematographer Bojan Bazelli does tone up the bleary-eyed interiors — the movie's color scheme is "Exorcist" green and rotting-plaster white — but it doesn't make much difference; rather, it just exaggerates the relentless sameness. The Seattle location must have been chosen for its sunless, drizzly skies; there are so many shots of car windows weeping with rain that theaters should pass out squeegees.

This seems to be the season for horror movies that are basically teases — offering a promise of a good scare and then running away before delivering. "The Ring" is just one more in that cycle.… Expand

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

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0

KaangamerJun 10, 2020

All I gotta say is how is this movie got a pg13 rating and not r that’s all you need to know

13 of 17 users found this helpful134

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4

MJaquesMay 24, 2011

Oh my. I still don't understand why this fascinates people so. I bought this as a special edition DVD after hearing so much about it. And, well. It doesn't really scare. It's got some interesting plot pieces, and it's fine to watch... butOh my. I still don't understand why this fascinates people so. I bought this as a special edition DVD after hearing so much about it. And, well. It doesn't really scare. It's got some interesting plot pieces, and it's fine to watch... but it's really an overproduced, over-hyped, and rather awful horror movie. The Village will give more shock value, and the 'psychological horror' is simply not there. You won't have nightmares. You'll barely bat an eyelid. Most of the film is spent expecting something interesting to happen. It does. Maybe twice. Worth a cheap buy, or a late night boredom-killer.… Expand

2 of 3 users found this helpful21

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6

savannahrummelDec 24, 2011

Though I am not a huge fan of horror movies, I was pleasantly thrilled by this movie. Unlike a lot of movies, The Ring did not focus solely on sex and violence to sell the plot, nor did it rely on sudden jolts or murderers jumping out at theThough I am not a huge fan of horror movies, I was pleasantly thrilled by this movie. Unlike a lot of movies, The Ring did not focus solely on sex and violence to sell the plot, nor did it rely on sudden jolts or murderers jumping out at the character in order to scare the audience. Instead, most of the horror came from the expectation of something scary, or from the disturbing nature of what was happening; the famous TV-scene was enough to make me avoid my television for a couple of hours. All in all, it was an entertaining movie and piqued my interest in the second one.… Expand

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10

JivkoNov 30, 2007

Excellent movie.

1 of 2 users found this helpful

8

tvbuffJan 12, 2011

Come on, what are people looking for? One of the scariest lines I've ever heard/seen. "Mom you weren't supposed to help her". I know it's a copied Americanized version but still unique to us. As scary to an adult as a movie can be in my opinion.