|
 THE
RING
With
Noami
Watts,
Martin
Henderson,
Brian
Cox
Directed
by
Gore
Verbinski
What
seems
at
first
to
be
another
victim
of
the
nu-slasher
genre
blooms
into
a
highly
innovative,
intriguing
and
scary
film.
There
is
a
rumour
about
a
VHS
video
tape
-
once
you
watch
its
freaky
imagery,
the
phone
rings
and
a
voice
notifies
you
that
you
have
7
days
left
to
live.
The
hoax
becomes
gripping
reality
when
a
journalist's
niece
and
three
of
her
friends
die
at
the
exact
same
time,
seven
days
after
they
watched
the
tape
together.
She
decides
to
investigate
the
possibility
and
tracks
the
tape
down.
From
there
onwards
her
seven-day
countdown
is
an
absorbing
meandering
of
clues
and
horrendous
discoveries.
With
amazing
imagery,
techniques,
narrative
and
performances,
director
Gore
Verbinski
manages
to
create
a
hybrid
of
classic
horror
and
technology
that
sends
the
viewer
far
beyond
their
expectations.
Here
are
neither
masked
men
with
knives,
nor
detectable
hit
songs
to
go
with
the
soundtrack
release
and
has
nothing
to
do
with
Hobbits.
The
Ring
is
as
surprising
as
it
is
original
(its
title
unfolding
deep
into
the
film
and
not
exactly
what
you're
expecting)
-
but
its
originality
is
an
illusion
since
this
is
based
on
the
Eastern
film
Ring-u.
The
great
casting
includes
a
kid,
an
intense,
serious
young
lad
that
looks
as
if
he
has
an
ancient
soul.
Naomi
Watts
seems
to
have
developed
a
taste
for
the
strange
and
the
near-inexplicable
after
her
tremendous
stint
with
David
Lynch's
Mulholland
Drive.
Writer
Ehren
Kruger
managed
to
come
up
with
a
great
script
which
Verbinski
translates
to
the
screen
in
a
vividly
striking
style
that
sets
this
spine
chiller
far
apart
from
your
usual
romping
blood
&
guts
crap.
But,
you
should
track
down
the
original.
[Did
you
know
-
the
little
girl
from
this
Western
version
won
the
2003
MTV
Best
Villain
award]
5
/
B
-
PB
1
2
3
4
5
6
A
-
B
-
C
|
