For about the first 80 minutes, "The Ring" is a very creepy movie, but the final half-hour degenerates into silliness and confusion.
This new horror film begins with two teenage girls discussing a rumor about a videotape. Apparently, if you watch this odd tape, you will get a phone call telling you that in seven days, you will die. Then, a week later, at the exact time you watched the tape, you die. One of the girls gets scared because she, in fact, saw the tape a week earlier with some friends. Guess what happens to her?
After this horrific death, the dead girl's aunt and Seattle reporter Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts) investigates the rumor of the tape. The investigation soon leads her to a remote campsite, where she finds the tape and watches it.
The tape is decidedly strange, filled with creepy images of a girl with long hair, a falling ladder, a woman jumping off a cliff, bugs and other nasty things. When the tape ends, Rachel receives that ill-fated call telling her she will die in seven days. The rest of the story is about the intrepid reporter trying to find the origin of the tape and trying to ignore the fact that scenes from the video are appearing all around her.
Another thing this movie has going for it is that it is unpredictable. That is of course, unless you've seen the original. That's right, folks: "The Ring" is a remake of a 1998 Japanese horror film called "Ringu." This film made buckets of money and is hailed as one of the scariest films ever made.
The problem with the American remake is simple: it's too conventional. Rachel, a single mother, has a precociously creepy son (David Dorfman, a newcomer) who sees things, draws strange pictures, and has really big eyes. One can't help but think of Haley Joel Osment in "The Sixth Sense," or any of the other insanely creepy little boys who star in horror films, or have in the past few years.
Then, there's what we'll call the idiot syndrome. It seems that in all horror films, like the "Halloween" series, the main characters must act like total and complete schmucks. After Rachel sees the tape, it seems like she wants more and more people to see it. And when bad things happen, she acts surprised.
Another perfect example of Rachel's stupidity is when she walks up to a secluded house at night. She knocks on the door, which creaks open the tiniest bit. Now, technically, entering the house would be trespassing (and wouldn't a reporter know this?), but Rachel does not stop; she goes right in and (hold onto your hat) bad things happen! What a surprise!
A scene which begins creepily and ends up idiotic is one where the ambitious journalist is on a ferry. She sees a horse in a trailer and goes up to stroke the animal (important note: in the infamous videotape, there is an image of a horse's eye staring straight at the viewer). When she tries to be friendly, the horse gets angry and breaks out of the trailer. All hell breaks loose, and no one can contain or stop the mad beast for about a minute. Rachel stays very close to the crazed stallion throughout this whole scene; soon, the horse is bearing down on her, and she barely escapes death. The question is: why not get out of the way? It makes so much sense; wouldn't you want to run the hell away when a horse goes nuts within 100 feet of you?
At the 80-minute mark, "The Ring" goes down a rabbit-hole that it can't get itself out of. There's a lot that happens in the final 30 minutes of the movie that will make you scratch your head in confusion. The origins of the people on the tape are explained, but it's too bad none of the explanations make sense.
It's not a surprise that the script falls apart. It's written by Ehren Kruger, whose previous scripts include "Scream 3" and "Reindeer Games," two very convoluted movies which, ultimately, made very little sense.
Kruger tries to emulate M. Night Shyamalan with his repeated efforts to shock the audience, especially at the preposterous finale. It's almost as if Kruger is watching the audience's reaction; at the appropriate moments, he seems to be saying, "Gotcha!" and pointing his finger at the audience in triumph. Kruger's only thought seems to be to screw around with a deliciously unpredictable story, and make it stupid.
That said, "The Ring" provides more than enough jolts and scares to satisfy any horror-movie lover. Even the convoluted finale has a huge shocker that will knock your socks off.
Among those who deserve credit for the creepy film are Gore Verbinski, a director whose previous efforts were the vastly different "Mouse Hunt" and "The Mexican." Kudos to Verbinski for crafting a strangely intriguing suspense thriller. Also of note are Watts, who plays Rachel with the right amount of cynicism and fear. However, she did a whole lot better in last year's "Mulholland Drive" than in one second of "The Ring." The cinematography, by Bojan Bazelli, is perfect, setting a tone of foreboding. Finally, the score by Hans Zimmer is right on the mark: quiet, calculating and scary.
"The Ring" is definitely worth recommending; it's creepy, intriguing, well-made, and well-acted. These attributes save the film from being bogged down by increasingly stupid implausibilities. For about two-thirds of "The Ring," the audience is given a damn good glimpse of what horror movies should look like.
