Gore Verbinski’s iconic remake of Ringu , The Ring, was my first horror movie and I have a soft spot in my heart for it. I remember as a kid, I watched the beginning scene of Scary Movie 3 and got so scared of it that I had to run out of the room. Yes, young me was so afraid of everything that even a horror parody could get me breathing heavy. Looking back on the moment I have no idea why it was so scary,but I knew that I had to avoid the film. Imagine my horror, when I realized what I had seen was a comedic take of a much scarier scene from an actual horror movie . I wanted to get over it, but I was also just scared of it. Thankfully, in my early teen years, I decided to conquer my fears and take the plunge. The Ring absolutely terrified me and I couldn’t look at my T.V for weeks after my first viewing. Even now the movie holds up suprisingly well and should provide more than the meaningful scare for those ready to take the plunge.

For those of you not familiar with the original , the story follows Rachel a journalist who starts to investigate a series of mysteriously connected deaths. After doing a bit of digging she uncovers a rumor of a tape said to kill anyone who views it in 7 days. Desperate to get to the bottom of the mystery she locates and watches the tape falling under its curse. With a 7 day timer, Rachel has to uncover the mystery before falling victim to the curse. Just the premise itself is terrifying in its simplicity. TV’s are ubiquitous and the idea a program on it could end up killing someone is horrifying. It’s tangential and something that could happen to anyone who happened upon an unnamed VHS, which growing up could totally happen.

Given that it’s a remake, it’s surprising to see how much Verbinksi managed to add to the film to breathe new life into it. I love how the color palette is dark and blue which keeps the mood bleak and ominous. The story deals a lot with water and murkiness so the colors thematically tie everything together. It’s such a distinctive feeling and stays with you long after watching it. On top of this, Hans Zimmer’s score is absolutely chilling and feels inseparable from the story the moment it starts playing. It’s a one of a kind horror soundtrack that I’ve never felt from anything else in the genre and I think that’s commendable. Just listen to “The Well” and you’ll know what I’m talking about.

Furthermore, the deaths in this movie are a lot more chilling and scary than the deaths in the original. When we see our first victim it’s like a sucker punch to the face. I can still remember the nauseous uncomfortable feeling that ran down my spine. They linger on the screen briefly – just enough to disturb the viewer without giving us enough time to inspect the damage. What makes it all the worse is we’re never told how it happens. We see our soon to be dead victim perfectly fine, reacting to the horror of the tape, and then see their body. It gets you thinking as to what horrifying events they went through to go from healthy and happy to their ultimate fate. Despite having seen this film at least four times, the scares still get me each viewing. The changes to the contents of the cursed tape are also great. It’s a lot scarier in a visceral sense and some of the images made my stomach churn. The images are incorporated well throughout the story and I appreciate how much effort went into exploring the way the tape is created and the ramifications of such a process.

One surprising change is how much more agency the lead character is given in comparison to her counterpart in the original. Rachel feels more humane. In the original movie, Reiko (Rachael) wants to investigate the deaths because she’s a journalist. Her personal relation to the case is secondary. Meanwhile, in this movie, the situation is reversed for Rachel, and she only investigates because her sister asks her to look into deaths. It makes Rachel feel more sympathetic and her plight more tragic as a result. Watt’s acting also helps her character feel relatable. She’s a no-nonsense get down to action person so when she shows terror after watching the cursed videotape you know something awful has happened. The terror of the tape feels real ,like it’s come out into the world around. The movie does a good job of getting you attached to her and rooting for her to win.

I didn’t like how the mystery of the tape was handled in this movie compared to the remake. The way characters come to key discoveries feels undeserved and more luck based which takes away from the realistic portrayal of events. In particular, Aidan is used as a plot tool more than once and it makes his entire character feel like a device to set events in play. This is indicative of a larger problem with the movie. Certain moments are carried over from the first film, but because this movie skips certain subplots, those moments don’t feel as emotionally charged. For example, the removal of a lot of the psychic subplot removes a lot of the rich commentary on how we treat and inflict violence on the Other. It also makes the decision to keep Aidan a psychic feel strange and unneeded. It’s never done to do anything cool and its inclusion actively makes certain plot elements more confusing. The scope of his powers and knowledge of the situation also don’t line up properly, so it just makes more trouble than necessary.

REPORT CARD

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