The Ring

by

debbie lynn elias

Described as a drama, horror and mystery, "The Ring" is just that - a horrifically filmed, allegedly dramatic work, the mystery of which is how and why this movie was ever made. Based on the Japanese novel, Ringu, and a remake of the 1998 Hideo Nakata Japanese film of the same name written by Hiroshi Takahashi, "The Ring" is the story of a mysterious videotape that kills each of its viewers seven days after seeing the tape. Watch the tape, the phone rings and an ominous voice tells you that you will die. Wait a week and then die. Piece of cake....or so it seems.

As luck would have it, a young teenaged girl named Katie who has a journalist for an aunt, dies after seeing the tape, sending her aunt into investigative mode as to the cause of Katie’s death. Initially Aunt Rachel views the alleged myth of the tape with great cynicism and skepticism, but after suffering nightmares and some bizarre physical symptoms, not to mention realizing that her young son has viewed the tape, she begins to believe that there is something evil going on here and there just may be some truth to the legacy and age old horror stories.

The tape itself is masterfully eerie and bizarre - grainy, sepia-toned and black & white footage depicting a collection of images seemingly compiled from the worst nightmares of the world - writhing maggots, burning trees (not bushes), covered cisterns, stormy nights, dead creatures, dismembered yet moving fingers and a ring-like tunneling vision like the eye of a tornado. And of course, strange visions of people and places which with a bit of video technology and good old fashioned detective work, prove to be key to the tape and is mysteries.

With only five days to go until D-Day after her viewing the tape, Rachel embarks on a full scale investigation together with her ex-boyfriend and father of her son, Noah, taking her into the woods of the Pacific Northwest and deep into the horrors of the once well-to-do Morgan family.

Naomi Watts stars as Rachel. Unfortunately, her bright beginning in the film rapidly reduces to that of a dim and flickering bulb as her performance gets increasingly erratic before settling into the mindless banality of the zombies in the campiest horror films ever made. A talented actress, I have to believe that her performance (or lack thereof) is due to the Ehren Kruger’s poor script and Gore Verbinski’s even worse directing. Martin Henderson seems aptly cast as the non-committal/non-family man, Noah, a character that we really don’t expect that much from and thus, are actually pleasantly surprised at some of the development the character actually does make. David Dorfman as young Aidan Keller, is impressive but it seems as if Verbinski tried to make him into a clone of Haley Joel Osment in his "Sixth Sense" starring role. Sorry guys - it didn’t work. Dorfman has always been engaging in his recurring television performances on "Family Law" and perhaps television is where he should remain for awhile longer. We’ll find out next month when he heads up the cast of the much anticipated "A Wrinkle In Time" based on the time-honored Caldecott award winning book by Madeline L’Engle.

Director Gore Verbinski, best known for "Mouse Hunt" and "The Mexican" (and next up "The Pirates of the Caribbean") has proven he has talent, although going from "Mouse Hunt" to "The Mexican" and now to "The Ring" it seems to be steadily deteriorating. He uses Hitchcockian techniques of close-ups on inanimate objects and creepy crawly flying things (including some birds) very artfully and effectively to create tension, but then can’t carry over these small nuances to the big picture to scare the pants off you. Instead, he loses the story and the audience and gets a laugh instead of a collective terrifying gasp or shriek.

Although visually stimulating, cinematographer Bojan Bazelli can’t save the film from its own idiocy as the story goes from the bad to worse and finally becomes ridiculously absurd - which accounts for the almost non-stop chortling of the audience.

This is a film that screams "stop already" at the 30 minute mark, yet like the Energizer Bunny (but nowhere near as cute), it keeps going and going and going and going to excess. Writer Ehren Kruger, who previously brought us "Scream 3" and "Reindeer Games" (the latter of which also had explanation upon explanation contained throughout) clearly has a penchant for wanting to be mysterious (and in this case, creepy) yet explain away all the mystery. Unfortunately, he doesn’t know understand the "less is more" concept - especially in the supernatural fright flick.

A horrifically terrifying film-going experience - to be sure. A horrifically terrifying film? No way. The only thing possibly worse than actually watching "The Ring" will be paying the late fees when it goes to video and it takes you seven days just to view it.