The ring

Year of release : 2002

Run time : 1h51min

Genre : Supernatural Horror / Mystery / Suspense

Cast : Naomi Watts

Director : Gore Verbinski

The Ring is a remake of the 1998 Japanese movie Ring,which was based on Koji Suzuki's 1991 novel of the same name.

 

Two friends talk on a rainy night about an urban legend. Right after,the phone rings,and Becca seems frightened. Soon after, Becca dies in mysterious circumstances.

A few days later, Rachel,an investigative journalist, goes to the funeral with her son,who was close to Becca. Talking to her sister, Rachel decides to investigate her niece's death. She soon finds out all of Becca's friends died on the same night,at the same hour.

Her investigation takes her to a place the teenagers rented,and ends up watching a weird tape,which after, starts a series of events which seem connected to the things on the tape.

She makes a copy of it,and shows it to her ex boyfriend,who can find out where the tape came from. As he wants to show it to his girlfriend, Rachel takes the tape and leaves,as she has nightmares about a girl and wakes up with burns on the place she touched her.

Although at first he doesn't believe Rachel,her ex boyfriend,Noah,changes his mind when he sees that no matter how many pictures of himself he takes and with how many cameras he uses,his face is distorted just as Rachel's and her niece before .

They start working together,and their investigation takes them to Moesko Island .

The Ring is one of my favorite movies, I remember watching it at the cinema,and then being afraid of the tv set at home. And yet ,I still bought the video and watched it many times.

 

I loved the way the movie was filmed, the direction and cinematography. I loved the colors as to suggest a world which is decomposing. I loved the nature scenes to show the passing of time,the close-ups of the red leaves, or wet windows.

The actors were good,they each held their own, the only problem I had,was that we're told again and again, Rachel was close to Becca, her niece who died,but she's never sad,she actually looks happy!

I loved the eerie soundtrack with the cello, created by Hans Zimmer, which merges with the beautiful video,creating a masterpiece.

The visual effects still stand the test of time.

The Ring was one of the highest grossing horror remakes of all time, grossing 249.3 million dollars against a budget of 48 million.

The movie received positive reviews, the critics loving the atmosphere and visuals, the cinematography and direction, and the acting, mostly that of Naomi Watts.

Cinema Score audiences gave the movie a B- on an A+ to F scale.

The movie spawn two sequels, "The ring 2" (2005) which I loved, and Rings (2017) which I hated.

 

Naomi Watts' role was offered to famous actresses like Kate Beckinsale, Jennifer Connelly, and Gwyneth Paltrow.

Chris Cooper played in a few scenes of the movie, but they were cut.

The title of the movie comes from the ring of light Samara last saw when left at the bottom of the well, and the ring of the dooming phone call letting them know they only have 7 days to live.

The Ring is for free on Hoopla, Kanopy ; 7 days free on Paramount+, Paramount+ on AppleTv Channels, Paramount+ on Amazon Prime Channels, Paramount+ on The Roku Channels, and for rent / sale on Amazon, AppleTv, Fandango at Home.

Rating : The stuff dreams are made of!