I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Well Deserved Praise

Boring, over-political, tech fuzed mess

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

A journalist must investigate a mysterious videotape which seems to cause the death of anyone in a week of viewing it. Although neither way to scary or a letdown of a remake to say the least 'The Ring' is definitely a watchable but pretty damn flawed horror film that benefits from Naomi Watt's perfomance but also from some intense and good scenes like the demise of one of the main characters in the end also the special effects were definitely pretty good to say the least. The Ring is definitely a watchable thriller although it could have been better. (6.5/10)

The movie must certainly be a feast for the eyes of horror film lovers with all its tension and suspense. However, it can't escape the cliches by touching all the twisted imagination buttons ever created throughout the movie history. As a person who has done with supernatural crap long time ago, I expected some intelligence after seeing Naomi Watts on the cast. Indeed, she was the reason for me to spare some time for this genre but the end result was total disappointment. The part involving the research about Anne Morgan looked promising for a while but towards the finale, nails coming off the walls by themselves, a zombie girl climbing out of a well and then coming out of a CRT screen to scare people to death... Those were all too much occults marring a flimsy story which was struggling to be coherent up that moment anyway. I also read that the director initially wanted to avoid big names from the cast with the idea of movie being discovered by itself (well, if you believe it...) Sorry for dashing your dreams pal, but this is just another run off the mill horror flick who'd never find this much success but for Watts. As for the movie itself, the storytelling is patchy and lacks cohesion. Some reviewers complain about the lack of character development but I guess this would be too much to expect from a horror movie, anyhow. I should finally give the director some credit that by using blood and gore sparingly, he acted wisely enough to jack up the creepiness level a notch high.

Gonna keep this short. What the Japanese version Ringu (1998), the meaning of water for Japanese people, the way it was shot, symbolism and the over all plot development is, to this day, is phenomenal. Dated yes, but can stand up on its'own.Sadoko in the Japanes version is just freaking scary. Those who have seen it, know the well scene can scare the living daylights out of viewers. Nevertheless credit is due to the American version where the lead female character Rachel, played out by Naomi Watts is more fleshed out and modernized. This may be a cultural thing, but the Japanese Reiko Asakawa comes across as submissive to her male counterpart.The ring a a great movie and the pacing is well constructed, but if you have seen the Japanese film first, than you may end up not liking this film.

Here in the United States, our horror movie culture is defined by mask-wearing, knife-wielding psychos like Michael Myers and Jason Vorhees. Over in Japan, though, their horror is much more dark and symbolic. "The Ring" (an adaptation of the Japanese "Ringu") brings that cinematic style over here.For a basic plot summary, "The Ring" introduces a video tape that, when watched, will result in the viewer getting a phone call telling them they will die in seven days...which is usually exactly what happens. However, when the tape is seen by a journalist (Naomi Watts) and inadvertently by her son, they become engaged in a race against the clock to try and decipher the tape's mysterious imagery and the real story behind the ring.The dark, disturbing imagery in this film is really what makes it a horror stand-out. Since we are accustomed to more in-your-face scare scenes, this oblique style proves to be even more terrifying. The young girl with the straight hair over her eyes, the well, the dead horses, and the horrifying faces of the tape's victims all add up to a cornucopia of disturbing images."The Ring" is also an exercise in the cerebral. Not all the answers are given up front or thrown in the viewers' face. Instead, we are forced to evaluate all the imagery and subtle clues to piece things together. To paraphrase Hitchcock, what we don't know/see is often scarier than the obvious.Overall, I consider "The Ring" to be a seminal horror film for fans of the genre (right up there with Halloween and Saw). Given the chance, I would have bumped the star-rating up to 4.5.