I find it hard to gloss the plot of “The Ring.” It’s either too complex or too simple to easily put into words, and honestly, I can’t remember the preview well enough to judge how much has already been given away of the (sort of) about-a-videotape-that-kills-people storyline. So, an edited version for the “under a rock” crowd will have to do. Naomi Watts, hot off of her success in “Mulholland Drive,” heads up a cast of people who make you go “Hey, I know them” in this taut thriller directed by Gore Verbinski (“The Mexican” and the wonderful “Mouse Hunt”) and written by a Ehren Kruger, who also penned “Scream 3” and “Arlington Road,” among others.
Watts plays Rachel, a tough-as-nails journalist who brilliantly finds a connection between the deaths of four people from the same high school who all died at exactly the same time. This connection, apparently hard for the cops to notice, is an unmarked videotape that, according to urban legend, will kill a featured extra exactly seven days from when he or she watches it. Watts herself views the tape, and, well, things sort of go downhill from there.
Add in suicide by horse and human, a visit or two to a mental institution (inherently weird) and a handful of children doing psychotic things, and out comes a movie that is so not crappy that, by the time the plot begins to twist unnecessarily out of control, you may actually buy into it all.
Matt’s Take:
Let’s get this out of the way now: “The Ring” is, as I’ve said and as it was advertised, a thriller about a video cassette that kills people. If anyone finds a joke necessary, do so quickly, because soon you’ll be too caught up in the surprisingly interesting and engrossing plot to stop and look at exactly what you’re being amused by.
Don’t worry; most of the characters are as skeptical as you are. The thing wins them over, doesn’t it? And you’re certainly more gullible than any silly ole movie character.
At least I was. I bought the dadgum thing hook, line, and sinker…the whole enchilada…It beat me like a redheaded stepchild. It happens to the best of us. Whatever floats my boat, I guess.
Yes, I liked it. I can’t avoid or diffuse the fact. I liked the stupid movie, chock full of clichZs though it was. It entertained me. I cared how the plot would wrap up, and when things began to get increasingly ridiculous, it pulled me right along. I wanted to dislike it. I tried. It’s a flick about a vid-e-o-tape, I told myself. It must suck! And it refused to.
The movie was simply too well done. Although it relied mostly on camera angles and willing suspension of disbelief, both were effective (I willingly suspended pretty much everything that rhymes with logic) and, dare I say it, entertaining. It’s one of the better-filmed thrillers I’ve seen in a while.
It could have been about the dangers of licking stamps top to bottom rather than side to side, and Verbinski would have made it work.
Kruger could have written a script about the horrors of life on Miami Beach after retirement, and, so long as he included weird children and some the-past-is-out-to-get-the-present motif, I’d have shelled out a gracious six bucks to sit and stare at it.
The whole thing just worked. I’d recommend it to anyone, even if you don’t usually care for a good scare. And, really, what else are you going to go see Halloween weekend? “Ghost Ship?”
Gabe’s Take:
Batten down your hatches, ladies and gents. It’s my first positive review of the year!
Just in time for Halloween, Dreamworks unleashes “The Ring,” a nicely-tailored creepfest full of rain, static, red light, horses, mayhem, ominous music and plenty of icky corpses. While these elements have the potential to fall extremely flat and make for a cornball B-movie extraordinaire, they don’t. In fact, they come together into what is easily one of the best thrillers of the year (behind “Signs” and “Frailty”).
The story quite simply works, and the film has been remarkably well shot and efficiently assembled. Verbinski continues to make intriguing mainstream films following the inspired slapstick of “Mouse Hunt” and the offbeat charm of “The Mexican.” The imagery he and cinematographer Bojan Bazelli create is often shocking and strangely beautiful in it starkness.
Particularly memorable (and intensely disturbing) are the images present on the mysterious videotape, but the rest of the film retains the same macabre energy as its gruesome centerpiece. Moody and foreboding in almost every frame, this is a horror film with dread to spare.
My complaints (I have to have at least a couple, don’t I?) are few but notable.
At times the plot teeters towards the illogical (true of any supernatural thriller, I suppose), with some plot points and coincidences ringing a bit too false for my taste. One that keeps coming to mind involves Rachel approaching and petting a horse for no other reason than that the plot requires it. We in the audience know that she is required to do this so something disturbing and terrifying can happen as a result of it, but, since we in the audience are no more apprehensive about the story’s strange goings-on than Rachel herself, we cannot fathom what would possess her to approach the horse in the first place.
Another problem inherent in a movie focused on aesthetics comes when one digs under the surface in search of truth or deeper complexity. Watts’ last film was David Lynch’s brilliant “Mulholland Drive,” a film where the puzzles kept on growing and re-arranging themselves until there was no clear solution. What kept audiences riveted to that film was the undercurrent of emotion and depraved psychology that made the mysteries all the more provocative.
“The Ring,” on the other hand, gives you a single glossy mystery with what are eventually easy (and, in my opinion, less than satisfying) answers. It’s the type of film where the mystery itself is more important than the motivations behind it and how it affects the characters.
Overall, though, this is a good yarn expertly told. See it at night with a big tub of popcorn and a friend to scream along with you.
Oh, and just to get on my critical soapbox for a second, there have been a handful of films released lately that I did enjoy besides this one; I just never had the chance to review them.
Here’s a list of movies still floating around Starkvegas that I enjoyed and hope you will too: “The Rules of Attraction” (dark, vibrant satire), “Barbershop” (a true crowd-pleaser), “The Transporter” (dumb fun with cool fights), “Red Dragon” (sleek thriller, powerhouse cast), “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” (the cute little-indie-that-could) and “White Oleander” (sturdy coming-of-age drama with great performances).

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Naomi Watts