The Ring

I own “The Ring” on DVD but hardly ever watch it. The film simply freaks me out too much. Don’t understand why? Allow me to explain.

Journalist Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts) is investigating an urban legend about a cursed videotape. Allegedly, watching the abstract, black-and-white little thing, will cause you to die after 7 days. Discovering that the curse is indeed real, she must unearth the mystery behind it before time runs out.

This is a picture that preys heavily on the fear of the unknown and of the familiar turning against you. Video cassettes are nothing to be afraid of, right? Everyone owns a TV but no movie has actually done people harm. What if one did? The tension begins when you see the tape yourself. That enigmatic sequence of bizarre and unsettling images, you start believing that something sinister could come of it, but what? What could cause a healthy teenager’s heart to stop and why was her corpse so unnaturally distorted? If only there was time to find out but guess what? You only have 7 days to live; there’s no time to ask questions like “how is this happening? ”

“The Ring” excels at creating suspense. For the most part, you hardly see anything; it's all in your head. Then, when you least expect it, you'll be witness to a horrifying revelation. The film already begins with a compelling mystery. You want to find out what the images on that tape mean, even more so when you discover that they are all clues to something supernatural. If only there was time! Unfortunately, there isn't. Our heroine has to push herself to the limit to stay ahead of that deadline. Think the tension can’t get higher from there? You’d be wrong. This story always finds new ways to escalate. Seeing the film is like being in it. The more you see, the more frightened you become, but it’s too interesting to look away.

Horror stories about movies tend to frighten me particularly. “8mm”, “Sinister” and this one are all great examples. They follow intelligent characters that are compelled to learn more. Like the protagonists in H. P. Lovecraft’s stories, they only realize what they’ve discovered when it’s too late. “The Ring” takes the idea and pushes it further. Then, it packs a double whammy of an ending.

In this picture’s wake, we got a number of other J-Horrors films: “The Grudge”, “One Missed Call”, “The Eye”… and none of them deliver the scares as well as "The Ring". It fills you with dread and consistently keeps topping itself by giving you a whiff of the true horror contained in the tape and slowly revealing the mystery behind it all. I think if you’re looking to make a film that’ll make audiences shriek in terror you could learn a lot from “The Ring”. (On DVD, January 25, 2017)