Rating: Summary: Scary as hell....... Review: I'm not gonna go into all the analysis that other reviewers have gone into. I'm just goin to say that this movie is genuinely frightening. It really is that scary. Everyone I know who's seen it has been really scared. There's not a drop of blood spilled in this film, and it's not violent at all. It just exemplifies the word "creepy." It really gets under your skin. I know ONE person who has seen this film and claims that he wasn't affected by it (probably because he saw it in the theater). Everyone else I know who's seen it was scared out of their mind, and when you consider that I'm an ex-bouncer who now works on an armored truck crew and carries a gun every day, well......After seeing this film alone at night and on TV videocassette no less, it was the only time I've actually slept with a loaded 9mm under my friggin' pillow. I remember when this flick was in theaters..... I was doing security at this apartment building..... one of the residents came home after seeing this film and stopped to talk to me..... he looked like he'd just seen a ghost---seriously shell-shocked. "Man, have you seen the Ring?" he asked. At the time I hadn't, but had heard how scary it was. "No," I said, "I haven't seen it." His eyes were still wide, like he was really scared. He just looked away. "Damn," he said. ".....damn!" If you watch this flick and you're not affected by it, then WHATEVER. Most people are seriously freaked out. Lemme put it this way: if you were even slightly creeped by the Blair Witch Project, your hair is gonna turn white when you see this film because it's WAY scarier. If you like ghost stories, you'll really like this flick.
Rating: Summary: Stick with the original. Review: If you're looking for a good horror movie, Asian cinema seems to be the place to look nowadays. Nothing exemplifies this more than The Ring. A remake of a 1998 Japanese film, the American version is lacking everything that made the original such a talked-about hit. The two most important aspects that it never can quite achieve are subtlety and atmosphere. In the orginal, the kids all look as though they've died of fright. In the remake, they look as though they've died of fright, AND THEN TURNED INTO DECAYING, DEMONIC CORPSES!!!! All this did was to add to the special effects budget. It doesn't improve the atmosphere, and it totally ignores the idea of subtlety. You don't need decaying, gooey, demonic corpses to make a creepy, disturbing movie. The DVD looks good, sounds good, has a short movie made just for the DVD, but I'd recommend skipping this and buying the original.
Rating: Summary: Great flick Review: I've seen both the original Japanese version and this American version of the Ring. The Japanese (original) edition was quite good, but I felt the American re-make was much better. If you read the reviews below, please be sure to weed out anti-American bashing from dead-on movie reviews (I'm talking to you Victoria...your review can be discounted since you concentrate more on shredding America and less on discussing this film).
Rating: Summary: I've seen better... Review: 'The Ring' is certainly effective at setting a chilling mood, especially if you watch it with the lights out. The problem is you have to really let go of logic and sensibilities to thoroughly enjoy it. I would have been happier if it had ended ten minutes before the ending, because the shock you were SUPPOSED to feel at the end wasn't worth the disbelief and "hokiness" of the final ten minutes. A movie that could have been somewhat intellectually satisfying became a run of the mill teenage thriller and left my intellect feeling debased and deflated. The original Japanese film 'Ringu' wasn't any better, and I usually always prefer an original foreign piece to its American copy. If you want to share a thriller of a movie with your kids (my boys are 9 and 12), this is the one to see. No gratuitous sex scenes, no extraordinary amount of bad language, and the horror of it is much more psychological than visually graphic, except for one suicide scene which flashes quite quickly. I won't let my kids see Jason or Freddy yet, but 'The Ring' scared the crap out of them without any permanent damage to their young psyches. They actually placed a book of children's bible stories (I wouldn't let them use the family Bible) in front of their bedroom door that night - - but it was "giggly-scared", not sheer terror. Of course, you have to know your own children well - your nine year old may not be able to handle it. Our kids have grown up with 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer', 'Army of Darkness', and other such scariness. We try to protect our kids from graphic sexual depictions and realistic violent images. To us, slaying a demon is not the same as watching a violent murder. If you are really looking for a good, quality chiller of a story, with fewer plot holes, I would suggest 'Stir of Echoes', 'What Lies Beneath', or 'The Others' instead of 'The Ring'.
Rating: Summary: Far from scary Review: The movie never really gets going until the very end. Watching the boy draw circles gets old the first time you see it, and is worse when you realize the boy is more annoying than anything else. I give it a second star for the last TV scene with the girl, and the last well scene.
Rating: Summary: Hollywood ruins another foreign cult classic! Review: Typical of Hollywood to remake an original foreign cult movie to appeal to the ignorant narrow-minded masses. Sure, they can spruce it up with updated special effects, more shock tactics and disturbing visuals, young attractive actors and new creepy dialogue - but you're watching an entirely different film altogether. You're watching the Americans greedily try to claim something their own and make it look better. The Hollywood plastic factory ruins yet another unique concept and form of cinematography. The best thing about 'Ringu' the original was that they didn't rely on updated special effects or creating an overlly modern look. It was realistic and gripping because it was so raw and simplistic. They focused moreso on the element of drama and realism. The narrative and visual sequences were full of symbolism and artistic integrity. Another thing that made this movie (Ringu, the original) so appealing was the fact it was Japanese and not sensationalised consumerist American slop. It delivered the message that not all good horror films are American, they don't all need to be traditional and excessively gory and it emphasized the fact that fear is universal by showing how it is depicted in a different culture. I think a lot of Westerners detach themselves from the rest of the world and it seems unimportant and irrelevant that people in other cultures experience the same horrors. Perhaps they thought that the only way Westerners could relate to the horror in the film is if they brought it closer to home and portrayed it in the typcial American style. If you're not that easily influenced, show patronage and see the original.
Rating: Summary: surprisingly good and creepy Review: A Film by Gore Verbinski The Ring is a remake of the 1998 Japanese horror classic Ringu. Since it is both a remake and a horror movie, I didn't think that this was something that I would enjoy. I rented the movie anyway. One thing to note about this movie is that it is more of a suspense thriller than horror. It was creepy, but not that scary. It was also quite good. The premise of the movie is that there is a video tape going around and if you watch it, you will die in 7 days. It is passed off as an urban legend and as a joke, but a teenaged girl died mysteriously. The mother asks her friend Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts), a reporter, to investigate. Rachel learns that the girl's boyfriend died at the exact same time, but in an unrelated manner. She also learns that a couple of other kids, all friends, died at the exact same time on the same day and that they had all supposedly watched this video together. Rachel travels up to the cabin they stayed at and finds a tape that they might have watched. She watches the tape and it is creepy and weird and she can't look away until the tape ends. Rachel is scared and the phone rings. When she answers it she hears a voice say, "Seven days." Now freaked out and thinking that she is going to die in seven days, Rachel frantically investigates the origins of this tape trying to find out the truth and also how this came about. I had expected a kind of blood and guts movie where massive amounts of people are dropping dead after watching a videotape. Instead, this is a fairly intelligent and well done thriller regarding an investigation into a mysterious videotape. The video is creepy, and I was surprised by how good this movie was. It is one of the better films that I have seen in the genre.
Rating: Summary: THE WORST MOVIE OF ALL TIME- that should of been the name Review: this was the worst movie i have ever seen in my life. there was not one part in this movie that was scary. i think that scary movie was scarier. it was the wors the worst the worst movie of all time. dont lisin to the reviewers because they only rate the worst movies good. and that is what this movie is the worst. it took me 2 days to watch it because it was so boring. DONT Buy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DONT Buy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DONT Buy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DONT Buy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DONT Buy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DONT Buy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DONT Buy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Rating: Summary: You will feel dumber after watching this Review: The movie begins with a creepy vibe and you think, yea, this is gonna be a good one...right? WRONG! This is the stupidest, dumbest, most random and pointless movie that I HAVE EVER SEEN! There are several unneeded scenes in which the movie is able to add a little bit of gore to it (the flash of Katie in the closest, the horse falling off the boat, and the RIDICULOUS way in which Samara's father kills himself) but honestly! They could have made the movie just as good if not better if they had left out their attempts at some blood. There are also several moments in which you believe the movie is over (I saw this in theaters and people, including myself and the people I went with, actually stood up to leave on 2 different occasions. Then when the movie finally does end you will sit in your seat waiting for the REAL ending because you're hoping and praying that it didn't actually end on such an empty note. It's as if they were going for an ending like The Twilight Zone had, but somewhere along filming they lost their script and the result was a wanna be cliffhanger. The ONLY redeeming quality of this film was the way that it was filmed and the music. The constant watery look definatly adds to the feeling of it and the music will give you chills. The acting was actually not that bad but unfortunatly the plot was missing and thus all the actors hard work was in vain. All in all, I don't recomend this film if you're looking for a thriller that will leave you thinking or even able to discuss it at the end but if you just want to see some spectcularly creepy filming then i GUESS you can watch this, other than that, run away quickly when someone suggests it.
Rating: Summary: One of the scariest movies I've seen in years Review: I had heard about this movie through word of mouth so picked it up at a rental place. Man was I glad I did! I ended up watching it about 3 times before taking it back and doing alot of freeze frame viewing. The cinema style is VERY creepy and really makes you nervous. The suspense the director holds you in is tremendous. Plus it takes alot of unforeseen turns that keep you guessing. I'd rate it close to "The 6th sense" for good endings. I will definitely buy the DVD when they come out with a platimum version or something. I want to see a directors cut.
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