Movie Review: The Ring

The Ring

The theatre trailers for The Ring never grabbed me sufficiently to make seeing the movie any kind of priority for me. After the film was released on VHS and DVD, it never even appeared on my radar until a good friend of mine saw it and proceeded to tell me I simply had to see this movie! When I saw it sitting on the video rental shelf this week, I decided I'd rent the film just to shut him up. For the record, it didn't work. We now rave about The Ring together.

The subject of The Ring is a short film that allegedly kills all those who see it. Pretty reporter Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts) doesn't take the idea seriously until her neice dies mysteriously and her son seems strangely affected by the death. During the course of her preliminary investigation, she discovers a copy of the film which she watches along with her friend, a video expert named Noah (Martin Henderson). As the two try to find out who made the movie and why, they become more convinced with every piece of the puzzle they uncover that the urban legend is true and that they're going to die before they can solve the mystery. But when Rachel's young son, Aidan (David Dorfman) sees the movie, her fear is overcome by her determination to save at least her son from whatever fate awaits them, courtesy of The Ring.

The acting in The Ring is all just fine, particularly that of the very young David Dorfman. The special effects are very well done, and the short film that is the movie's centerpiece is both bizarre and frightening. The script is good, too. But it's the story itself that's really the star, here. The Ring was originally a book written by a Japanese author which was then made into a movie that proved a gigantic hit in Japan. The storyline was doubtless changed significantly to make the American version of the movie (for example, the action took place in the Pacific Northwest, a fact we can safely assume was not evident in the original novel and film). Yet the story remains truly frightening. There are, in fact, moments when you will be hard pressed not to look away from the screen, not in horror but in terror. And I give you fair warning: turn off the phone before you pop the tape into the machine. A ringing phone at the wrong time will send you screaming into the night.

FAMILY SUITABILITY: The Ring is rated PG-13. There's no graphic violence or gore, and there's very little objectionable language. None-the-less, the intensity of the movie is such that I think PG-13 is too light a rating. I see a lot of horror movies and read a lot of horror books. Very little gets to me any more. The Ring got to me. I was scared to death. In the case of The Ring, that's a great recommendation. It's also, however, a warning. This movie is not for kids or for adults who don't deal with high intensity well. It's too much the stuff of nightmares. I'd keep those age 14 and under way from The Ring. For all other horror fans, I recommend The Ring as being one of those rare horror movies that delivers every bit of the horror promised...and then some.