Both of my friends wanted to see this movie. So I was out vetoed 2-1. I had one main reason for not wanting to watch The Ring. It looked really stupid. Really, seeing something on TV that makes you die. How enthralling. But, my friends were paying for the rental, so who am I to complain?
Before I get into the movie, let me say this. I don't watch many scary movies. I can't remember the last time, actually. The scariest thing's previously I've seen in the past two or three years were on the evening news and my own dreams. So I don't really have an immunity to scary movies like so many of my peers do.
The story line is fairly basic. There is a movie that if you see it you will die 7 days later. The movie seems like a dream, or a string of visions. As you watch it something happens to you. After seeing the movie you can't have a clear picture taken of you. And on the 7th day, something comes after you. Something terrifying. And you die, all twisted and distorted.
In the begining of the movie this happens to a teenage girl. Her mother is devastated and goes to a relative, a journalist, for help. A few of the girl's friends tell her about this movie and the rummor behind it. Well, it took a quick search to find out that all four teens who saw the movie that night died. Each at the same time.
Of course, logically, a movie can't kill you. So she starts investigating the teen's evening. One of her first clues is a packet of photo's they took that night. They were all fairly normal until one of the last photo's. The four teen's faces were distorted.
Well, the photos alludes to a campground where they were that night. Determined, she goes there. Due to the camp location there are not any TV stations that can be recieved. So the campground offers VCRs and a selection of videos that other campers leave behind. An unmarked VHS tape innocently sits on the shelf. Suspicious, she grabs it and rents the cabin to watch it.
After seeing the 30 seconds or so that the tape runs, she gets an immediate feeling of danger and goes home with the tape. Here the movie picks up and starts to run wild. She realizes that any picture of herself that she takes now shows her face as distorted. After copying the tape, she gets her friend, Noah, involved. He is very laid back about the whole thing and doesn't really believe her claims.
Article comments
1 - Jim Carruthers
I rented The Ring last weekend, and it is one of the best horror movies I've seen in a long time. There is very little gore or violence, it is instead a classic ghost story, with a growing sense of dread and terror.
The extra scenes are included as an extra short film, and I wish for the DVD release they had included the extra scenes in the movie since they clarify a couple of points, and provide a better ending too.