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Before you die you see the ring, hell you see a lot more than the ring. But this horror, mystery, thriller does a wonderful job with the use of light (or lack there of) and surroundings to get the images across. The Ring was directed by Gore Verbinski (The Mexican and Time Machine) and choosing the very damp and dark Seattle as the location added to the creepiness of this film. I will have to say, I was not as scared as I was in The Sixth Sense, or The Others, nor did the ending shock me as in those other films, but it was a remarkable movie with images that will stick. Katie (Amber Tamblyn formally of the soap General Hospital) and Becca (Rachel Bella) are hanging out in Katie’s bedroom chatting like teenage girls do. Becca begins talking about a videotape that you die after watching it. After you watch it the phone rings and the young girls voice whispers, you have seven days before you die. Katie gets upset and explains she saw it last Saturday (a week ago) while staying in a cabin with her boyfriend Josh. Then she fakes choking to scare her friend. A little while later, Katie is scared at weird things happening, so she runs upstairs only to see a puddle of water at her door, she opens it. Well next thing we know Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts, Mulholland Dr.) a Post Intelligence reporter is racing to pick up her son, Aidan (David Dorfman, Bounce) at school. She is late and the teacher (Sandra Thigpen) is watching him (his cousin Katie died a few days ago and she used to be his sitter). The teacher is concerned about some drawing Aidan has done. They are of Katie dead. Rachel explains that is normal since they were close and she just died. Only he did those pictures the previous week. At the memorial service Katie’s mom Ruth, (Lindsay Frost, Collateral Damage) begs Rachel to find out why/how Katie died. The doctors had no explanation other than her heart stopped. It was the disturbing image of Katie’s face that has her mom freaked. Also the friend Becca, went crazy and is now in a mental facility. We also learn that the other three kids that watched the film with Katie also died at the same time that night. Rachel tracks down this movie, watches it and the phone rings. Now she has a week to find the source of this movie, the meaning of those random images and prevent herself from dying. That is about all of the plot I am going to give away. I enjoyed this movie up until the
last fifteen minutes. Then it seemed to get campy and too simple. After careful
and deliberate images, scenery, and messages they then tried to tie it up
without much thought. I had it figured out and was disappointed. Also appearing
in this movie were, Martin Henerson (Windtalkers),
Brian Cox (The Bourne Identity), Jane Alexander
(The Cider House Rules), Daveigh Chase (Artificial
Intelligence), Sara Rue and many more. I was impressed with the
cinematography, and the suspense, but once it began to unravel I lost interest.
I guess I would have to see the original Japanese film Ringu to see how to fix
the ending.
Last updated: Thursday, March 20, 2008 02:47:49 AM Click Here to get back into frames.
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