the ring

October 23, 2002

Scale: 8/10 Should you see it? YES How’s the writing? GOOD Any gaping holes in the plot? NO, but all answers are not given at the end What stands out? First movie in a long time to actually freak me out a little. See it in the theater or wait to rent? WORTH THE THEATER

That’s your 20 seconds, but there’s more…

The Ring does several things really well. First of all, it jumps right into the plot. Within 5 minutes of the opening credits… err, well actually there aren’t any opening credits. You only know the movie has begun by paying attention, so hopefully there aren’t any movie-whisperers behind you or you may have to shush them, which makes me feel older than God’s babysitter, but sometimes it just has to be done.

The movie moves quickly into the plot and pulls you into it. Do not expect to get a refill on that popcorn, because what you miss may very well mean that you won’t understand something later on, and whoever you went to see it with won’t want to tear their eyes away to try and describe it to you.

Most scary movies aren’t really all that scary. They may surprise you, they may gross you out, they may make you say “That’s just not right” but there are very few truly scary movies. The old Friday the 13th movies are more embarassing than anything. Carnage does not equal a good scare.

That’s why The Ring is scary. There is very little to scare you on screen. The few scenes that they do show that are truly scary are shown only for a moment. It’s up to your brain to fill in the rest… and your brain can probably scare you much more than anything a Hollywood crew can come up with.

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  • http://www.publictoilets.com I'mMe

    Actually, a movie is only scary if you let it scare you, or if you want it to scare. To go into a movie with expectations is an invetation to dissappointment. To all of you who say “I’m not scared to easily” You need to relize that it’s okay to get scared in movies. We’re not 8 anymore people. The guy who said he laughed in it obviously got scared, cuz he picked a certain scene that most people feel is the scariest in the movie to pick on. Just cuz a movie is popular doesn’t mean you have to make fun of it and laugh at it. And just cuz there old doesn’t mean they suck. The Exorcist is FAR SCARIER than The Ring, because The Exorcist is based on a true story. In order to get scared in any movie, you have to watch it all alone in the dark, in the right frame of mind, and as you would reading a book or playing a video game, use your imagination and put yourself in the movie, and trust me it makes movies, not just horror, incredible and will impact you. I mean what’s the point of sitting down for 2 hours and watching a little box with pictures. If I’m gonna waste a good 2 hours of my life on something, I want to enjoy it, and this technique has worked. But if you view movies like The Exorcist and THe Ring with the mindset of “oh it’s not real, it’s just a movie”, then let me reverse that on you, “oh Young Frankenstein (example) wasn’t funny cuz it’s all fake and they just use a bunch of jokes and stuff, but it’s not real” or “saving private ryan wasn’t touching because all that was fake makeup and acting, and it wasn’t real.” You see how stupid that sounds. Let’s all be mature and allow ourselves to get scared in a movie. I mean scares aren’t stupid visuals, buckets of gore, and little jump scenes. A scare stays with you, but I never had a movie give me nightmares. My scariest flicks are: 1.Exorcist 2.The Shining 3.Halloween 4.Alien 5.The Evil Dead 6.Texas Chainsaw Massacre 7. A Nightmare on Elm Street 8.Night of the Living Dead 9.Psycho 10.The Ring 11.Jaws 12.The Thing 13. The Omen 14. The Blair Witch Project 15.Rosemary’s Baby

  • http://tntluoma.com TjL

    I think what you are missing is that people respond to things in different ways. For a movie to make me laugh it has to pull me in and let me (or even force me) to forget that it is only make-believe. For a movie to scare me it has to get me to believe it. When I saw “Darkness Falls” it was dark and rainy and the electricity kept threatening to go out. Perfect scenario for a scary movie to have an effect, right? Well it did… until they showed the “monster” and it looked dumb, and suddenly I was pulled out of the moment.

    There’s nothing wrong with being scared of scary stuff in movies, but not everything that is intended to be scary will be… just like not every joke will seem funny in every comedy and not every dramatic scene will be impressive. That’s why some movies are better than others.

  • http://tntluoma.com/ TjL

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