Saturday, February 11, 2012

The Ring (2002)

(Spoilers in the best/worst section of this review.)

I was pleasantly surprised by this flick. More mystery than horror, light on gore but heavy with atmosphere... this is much closer to the kind of scary movie I enjoy. Now, granted, it was also a ridiculous, contrived, gimmicky concept and I wasn't ever that *scared*, but I did find it fairly entertaining. Certainly better than I was anticipating. I'll have to check out the original Japanese version sometime. 3 stars.

Best Part: I actually really enjoyed the ending. I shouldn't have - that's the kind of thing I would normally hate - but the "first ending" was so anticlimactic. And if there's not going to be a satisfying triumphant ending, I'll settle for a suitably creepy bad ending.
Worst Part: The concept. Even after it was all "explained," I still found myself thinking, "Really?"
Flickchart: #700, below Death at a Funeral and above The Witches of Eastwick.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I, too, found myself surprisingly entertained by this one. Nice atmosphere. Incidentally, I found the sequel (The Ring Two) a perfectly adequate continuation, but the real gem is a short film that takes place between the two movies called Rings. It's on The Ring Two DVD as a bonus feature.