Rating: 
Summary: Veeeeerrry creeeeepy!
Review: My wife and I rented this movie as a diversion, having heard almost nothing about it. The premise seemed juvenile and silly, but we were both surprised by the quality of the storytelling and the overall creepiness. Well-filmed and more subtle than 99% of films in this genre, we thought we knew where the film was going - down a fairly predictable road. But we were wrong more than once as the ride got bumpier the further in we got.
Contrary to what some of the reviewers here say, the film makes perfect sense, though the explanation isn't handed to you on a silver platter, and the unstated implications add to the creepiness.
Well-done psychological horror, and highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Brainy Horror, Nicely Done
Review: "The Ring" is an American adaptation of the 1998 Japanese horror film called "Ringu." The plot is hideously simple: a videotape floating around kills anyone who watches it at the end of seven days. We know this because after the poor viewer gets to the end of the film, the phone "rings" and a voice whispers "seven days." A week later, someone finds the body of the viewer dead as a doornail with horribly swollen facial features. During the final week of life, people who watched the tape suffer from unpleasant hallucinations and nosebleeds. If this sounds like an urban legend to you, you're right on the money. But when this urban legend appears in the form of a movie like "The Ring," it blows hooks hanging off doors or ghostly hitchhikers right out of the water. This movie is full of creepy shocks, claustrophobic atmosphere, and hidden symbols and clues. It even has Naomi Watts, the blond babe from Lynch's schizophrenic "Mulholland Drive" as the main character.The beginning of the film pulls no punches. Katie and her friend Rebecca are discussing the effects of electromagnetic waves on the human brain when an offhand comment about a videotape that kills comes to the fore. Katie looks fearful as she confesses to her friend that, indeed, she saw the tape in a cabin with some friends. After some playful hijinks, we discover that Katie really did see the tape as we catch a quick glimpse of her final moments of life. This tragedy brings into the story her enigmatic cousin Aidan and his mother, a reporter for a Seattle newspaper named Rachel. At the request of Katie's mother, Rachel begins to investigate the videotape, a task that assumes dire proportions after Rachel watches the tape and realizes she might die in a week's time. What follows is a race against impending doom, a doom that assumes additional dimensions when Rachel's acquaintance Noah and her son Aidan watch the video. Research into the tape unearths one strange turn after another. A woman who appears in the tape turns out to be one Anna Morgan, a horse breeder who went insane after adopting a little girl named Samara. Moreover, the images Rachel saw on the tape continue to turn up during her investigations. As the mystery slowly unravels, many questions arise. Who is Samara and what is her connection with this dreadful videotape? Is this frightening little girl a ghost who chooses to haunt through the processes of media instead of rattling chains in a house? How can misery transfer itself to an inanimate object? And my personal query, did anyone else find Aidan as eerie as Samara? One thing is certain: repeated viewings of this film are most helpful. One time through won't do the trick with this movie. You must be patient and pay attention because the answers are do not come easy. I think too many people expected an undemanding slasher film instead of this suspenseful, downbeat exercise in cerebral terror. I for one welcome these fresh attempts to deepen the horror genre. Gory exploitation films and teenage stalker movies certainly have a place (consider how Jason, Freddy, and Michael Myers are now a permanent part of our pop culture), but for those of us who want something deeper and darker to strike us insensate, "The Ring" delivers the goods. The scene where Noah experiences what really happens when one's seven day waiting period expires will stay with me for a long time, and it was all done without a knife, axe, machete, power tool, or whatever else horror film murderers are using to dispatch their victims with these days. I haven't been this unsettled by a little girl since the twins in Kubrick's "The Shining." "The Ring" hits a home run on several levels. The DVD version, with wonderful sound and a great picture enhanced the horrific aspects of the film. Included on the version I watched was a trailer for the original "Ringu" and deleted scenes that provide additional information about the mysteries of the film, including a chilling alternate ending. Regrettably, there were no commentaries or behind the scenes clips for the movie, although one imagines that a "Special Edition" will soon appear containing such things (for extra dollars, of course). If the Japanese public's response to "Ringu" is any indication, expect a sequel to "The Ring" in our country within a year or two. Sequels often do serious damage to the original picture, but if more films take us deeper into the mysterious realm that is Samara, I welcome them with open arms.
Rating:
Summary: Scary
Review: This movie had me on the edge of my seat the whole time. Don't watch with small children it can give them nightmares. A must see for adults. The movie left me saying "oh my God, that was scary" Great movie!!!
Rating:
Summary: To all those who have no idea what a good movie is
Review: To those of you who have "issues" with "The Ring"
Go back to school and learn how to spell.
It is obvious in your reviews why you did not like this movie....
you are ignorant. That is what I get from your reviews. Ignorance. It practically bleeds out of my screen every time I read a negative review about this movie. I have yet to read one that is coherant. The irony in that is, that is the issue these morons have with the movie. Just stop watching intelligent movies and give those of us a break who can follow and enjoy a movie such as this.
You only embarrass yourself.
Rating:
Summary: A must see!
Review: I am a big fan of horror movies, therefore I do not so easily get frightened. But I should say that even though not a single drop of blood was spilt in this one, it is extremely scary, and can make a nervous wreck of a sensitive person in the first ten minutes of watching. I felt my heart sink at least two times in the beginning, and I confess that I watched the scariest bits of it through a little slot between my fingers. I've seen both Ringu and The Ring, and I recommend you to buy both. The story of The Ring is more full and complicated, than that of Ringu, but what makes the original version a unique expirience is that even through the lack of special effects Nakata managed to create a really disturbing movie, which you won't be able to forget for a long time. The first two weeks after I've seen The Ring, I was afraid of dark places in my apartment, and even though I understood that I it was absurd, I still couldn't help imagining Sadako/Samara standing there....
Rating: 
Summary: "Before you die...." of boredom!
Review: Not scary, storyline is hokey. Bad visual effects. Stupid premise. What more can I say except skip this piece of garbage and rent "Signs," a better and scarrier film! Grade: D-
Rating:
Summary: Woah!
Review: I'm not going to go through the plot run-down, as many other reviewers have done it better than I probably could. But, man! What a movie! I don't scare easily, but with this one, I slept with the lights on, and it was the first movie a scream actually escaped my mouth... The plot requires you to think to sort out all the details. Rachel is a reporter for the Seattle Post, and the director does a good job of putting you into her place. You get lots of information that just isn't important, but you have to sort it away from what is - just like a reporter. The confusion adds to the eerieness of the plot and setting. Speaking of which, they couldn't have chosen a better place to film. I had no idea Seattle could be so creepy! The weather only adds to the mood - a little romantic for such a post-modern movie, but it suits. Overall fantasic acting, great character development, an intriguing and involving storyline, and some way scary moments...what more could you ask for?
Rating: 
Summary: I expected SO much more than this...
Review: Ever since this movie was in the theater I've heard nothing but how great, scary, and creepy it is. I just had to see it, so I rented the DVD. To say that I was absolutely disappointed is an understatement. Before I watched it, I got the impression that this was a deep, at least somewhat intelligent, freak show of a psychological thriller like Silence of the Lambs or the like. As I began watching, however, I got the sense that I was watching one of those teen slasher movies. It was completely predictable, the plot was almost comic, scariness was nil, and the ending was as tired as it was stupid. Throughout the movie the main characters stumble across signs of impending doom such as blurred reflections of themselves in video and pictures, water standing on the floor, hallucinations, and much more. The significance of these things is never established, and no, not because they were trying to keep from spoon-feeding the audience. They simply put strange things in the movie to "scare" you and then never came back to the issues. It was a complete and total letdown, and is one of the worst horror films that I can think of. If you are pre-teen or teen and like the traditional hack-em-up movies without a plot or consistent theme, go for it. Otherwise, you can do better than The Ring.
Rating: 
Summary: Watch the tape but don't answer the phone
Review: Watch the video, and die in 7 days. But what is the video about? The video is a strange set of video taped random objects (clues) that at first sight make no sense. HOWEVER, if you try to figure out what all these clues mean, as the heros of this story try to accomplish, then we'll discover why the tape makes sense, why people are dying, etc. "Oh, that's why that's on the tape. Oh, that's why that's on the tape. Oh, that's what The Ring is." Add to this we have a sometimes possessed child who draws strange things and scribbles on the faces of the strange drawings. You've seen every element of this movie in other movies. I wouldn't say this movie is scary. It's more like a Scooby Doo ghost hunt...finding clues to the mystery. But can all the clues be put together in 7 days?
This movie does the typical tricks to get you to jump, but that's not much of a challenge. Jeepers Creepers was all about getting you to jump, not necessarily over anything scary. The clues are so random that it's impossible to figure out their meaning until the main characters do, which doesn't allow you to have much fun trying to put 2+2 together. Minority Report was much better at this. Oh well. It's entertaining, but nothing spectacular. I don't recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: I was so scared.
Review: There is an actual copy of the original tape in the extras in this disc. I watched it and was so spooked that I bought a CD-writer made a copy before the week was up. I mean I didn't start bleeding form the nose or finding sensor thingies with long threads attached in my mouth or induce suicidal tendencies in horses and stuff but still I didn't want take a chance with my life... Actually my lost sleep was in that a movie with such gaping holes in the plot could be liked and in fact critically acclaimed. Now if this was a slasher or a gorefest I wouldn't have given cared what the plot was about but this is a movie which tries to spook with a story...some people found this scary but all I found was disgust (like the brain eating scene in Hannibal, only without the charisma of Hannibal)...This movie has tried to create a cool plot twist like in Sixth Sense but ends up falling flat on its back. I've seen TV soaps with scarier more thought out plots...
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