thomas4cinema

No doubt, the Ring series – American or Japanese – has its nice bits of atmospheric horror, and outright moments of terror towards the end. I have seen the Japanese original some years ago (see https://thomas4cinema.wordpress.com/2007/05/03/ringu/), now the American – and I have to say that it does not really hold up. If you know what is going to happen, the whole thing feels like a waiting loop towards the final scenes, as the main plot and the characters’ adventures are, honestly, not very interesting. The finale is pleasantly creepy (even though I think not half as creepy as the Japanese one), and there is a nice scene involving a horse going mental. Also, the video at the heart of the film is a bit better done than the one in the Japanese version, that must be because Gore Verbinski saw more Bunuel during his university time, I assume. All in all, it lacks that certain atmosphere that maybe exist in Asian horror films only to the eyes of a non-Asian audience – but it is exactly that what makes these films attractive to me. I would dare saying that The (American) Ring would not have established a multi-part franchise had it been the first of all these.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/ring/