The horror hit of 2002 was actually an Americanized remake of a Japanese
horror film (Ringu).  Unfortunately, I did not watch the original before
watching the Hollywood version (I like to watch things in order - oh well),
but after watching this film, I'm not going to be in a hurry to find
"Ringu".

The premise is this - there's a videotape that if you watch it, you will die
7 days later.  A goofy premise, even for a horror movie, but actually, they
do a good job of making it believable.  The first half of the movie has the
main character (Naomi Watts) tying several teen deaths together, finding the
videotape and trying to figure out what it is about the tape.  She of course
watches it and now has a week left to live.

Let me talk about the good aspects of this film.  The videotape is a jumbled
mess of images, many of which are creepy.  I enjoyed that... and there's a
hidden feature on the DVD where you can watch the video and the DVD won't
let you get out of it once you're in it - nice feature!  Anyway, I thought
the acting was pretty good, including the child actors.  And the visuals of
the film were nice - creepy, subdued colors, beautiful landscapes, etc.

What I didn't like was the story.  I did not like the ending.  The ending
that never seems to end!  It just keeps going on and on, with hardly any
explanations of what's going on or why it's happening.  It's never told how
the tape was made.  The way people die is ridiculous.  The reasoning of why
some people don't die is silly.  There were many aspects of the tape and of
the girls past that just weren't properly explained.  I can understand
leaving a little mystery in a movie, but at least make it make sense!  I was
interested in this film as it developed, and there is a good amount of
suspense.  But it leaves too many things untied, and the things they do tie
up are ludicrous.
 
 
 
 
 

Quality: 3.5  Visuals: 6.0  Intensity: 3.5 
OVERALL RATING: 4.3