The Ring - It Will Wind You Up

The Ring - Showing now at a theatre near you!

Arguably the thriller of the year

By Emma Kae - 20th October 2002 - Back to News

The ring. Traditionally, rings that are worn represent a fragment of life with no beginning and no end. It may represent everlasting friendship, love or memories. This ring, however, represents a cycle of a mere seven days, with a definite beginning, and a tragic end.

This film tells the urban legend of a video tape that, when watched, sets off a timebomb. The moment the tape ends, the viewer receives a phone call informing them that they have just one week to live. Exactly seven days later, they die, and there is nothing they can do to stop the inevitable.

A skeptical investigative reporter, Rachel (Naomi Watts) learns about the tape through the death of her niece and disbelieving of the fable, she tracks it down and watches it. It is not long before Rachel becomes a believer. Unfortunately, in her naievity, she leaves the tape lying around, and her young son, Aidan (David Dorfman), also sees the tape, sealing his fate.

The Ring is a re-make of a Japanese film based on the novel "Ringu," by Koji Suzuki (1998). Its strength is in the marriage of Bojan Bazelli's cinematography and Tom Duffield's production design, bringing the dark, cold, weighty look and feel of the film life. Additional credit must go to the a deft approaches made Hans Zimmer's intense score and Craig Wood's merciless editing enhance the experience that much more.

Indeed, the film is genuinely chilling, and has the ability to build and maintain suspense, as well as provide a number of genuine scares that will ensure that you never look at the television, the bathroom door or your pony in the same way again.

Unfortunately, the film loses out in the storyline (or lack of). The elusive phonecall, for example, who was it made from? How does the caller know that the tape has been watched? The giant holes left gaping in the plot are too wide to ponder, and as a result leaves the viewer scrambling to put all of its disparate pieces together.

Unlike many films of late, The Ring actually brings something new to the big screen, which makes a nice change from popcorn being the most interesting feature of the night out.

Recommended if you liked "The Sixth Sense", "The Others" or "The Blair Witch Project"

Click here to see when The Ring is showing at a cinema near you.

Click here to visit the official site.

Source: http://gippsland.com/

Published by: news@gippsland.com