Review – The Ring

It’s this movie’s misfortune that it was heralded as one of the scariest, most original horror flicks to come along in years. Though it largely fails to live up to the hype, it has a few things going for it. The basic premise (the old innocent-character-doomed-by-incidental-contact-with-bad-juju routine) is solid enough. Evil’s trigger mechanism is a video tape with a film-student-style nightmare sequence, condemning whosoever watches it to death within seven days. The tape itself and some of the makeup effects brought into play once its cycle reaches culmination do in fact engender at least a few decent chills. On the other hand, the movie is plagued with bad story editing – including at least a couple fairly good-sized plot holes – and characters who aren’t nearly likable enough to keep the audience interested in their plight. Also, several of the movie’s more effective moments are “borrowed” either from the original Japanese version or from other genre outings. That notwithstanding, when it comes to horror movies I’ve seen a lot worse. Mildly amusing