Horror Extreme Movie Catalog

Wow...thought this was going to be MUCH better than it was...with so many critics putting this and its Japanese counterpart-Ringu-on their top 10 or 50 or whatever scariest films I thought this would be a classic...nope...certainly not...while there are some well done moments that build suspense, the story itself is such a mishmash of different ideas you really don't care--and the twist at the end?? That the main character went through all this stuff trying to help out a girl ghost who is actually evil?!? That was massively tacked on, as though the filmmaker/author was trying to one up the run of "twist" movies like 6th Sense and others...Overall it was a waste Naomi Watts' good looks and mediocre acting, neither scary nor fulfilling...

Like all masterpieces in the horror genre, this film succeeds not on the basis of gore and slash, of which there is little, but on the basis of the single most important element for a great horror film--atmosphere. The Ring uses unusual, creepy imagery (the twisted photos, the "death" film), color and shadows, unexpected episodes (the horse on the ferry, the coughing up of the medical patch), spooky settings (the remote island, the well), and truly frightening plot twists to keep the suspense and fear factor high. Some critics panned this film in favor of Ringu, but I can only guess that they were afflicted by the "if it's less popular or rarer it must be better" syndrome. I saw Ringu and found it rather absurd (and not intentionally), and not much in the way of frightening, either. Sometimes bigger budget films do get it right. The Ring is one of them.