The Ring

So today I went out with the intention on seeing the new Harry Potter but when I got to the theater it was a mob scene of kids and I didn't feel like sitting in a packed theater yelling 'Shut the fuck up!' over and over at the little brats. It's just not the way I wanted to spend my afternoon. (Just kidding)- but I didn't think I could deal with a theater full of kids, so I bought a ticket for The Ring which I've been meaning to see anyway. On the way there, I picked up an everything bagel with scallion cream cheese and some onion/garlic potato chips (wanna kiss?) and a Dr. Pepper but I got totally busted walking in with the bag of food. This manager chick told me I couldn't bring it into the theater so I went outside and stuffed all the food in my jacket and snuck it all in. It felt sort of like shoplifting ...but like reversed. 

So, The Ring. It was good. It was scary. It looked good. The acting was pretty good (including the kid). And the concept for the film was coolio.

You probably already know the dilly but here's the gist of the story. There's a tape floating around. If you watch it. You're deadmeat in 7 days. I dig that. What I also dug was that in the movie they show you what's on the tape. I thought they'd maybe keep it 'secret' from us or something but they showed it. And I thought it was a coolio thing to see. The video had an artsy creepiness to it that worked for me.

Anyway, this reporter chick watches it and soon realizes she watched the wrong frickin tape totally. So she and her boyfriend research what the hell it is to try and save their own lives and all that. Her kid had some Sixth Sensey stuff thrown in to the mix too. Along the way there is some most excellent creepiness and shock seconds that were high level scare tactics. And through the first half of the movie I was riveted and creeped out alot - it had me loving this flick.

But then the flick started flickering. As the plot played out things sort of slowed down and it started to lead in directions that were interesting but not necessarily all that exciting. It had a sense of requiredness to try and make the pieces fit. To turn it into a real mystery. They gave you a bunch of pieces to chew on but I kept coming back to... and what does this have to do with the VHS tape? And phone calls? And that to me was a big glaring flaw through it all. The movie starred an evil that was spread through technology but the evil was born from a purely unpure 'natural' source. I understood the reasoning behind the videotape (sort of) but the idea that that particular brand of evil would spawn this techy tech evil offspring simply didn't ring true.

Three Good Things About This Movie
- There is a scene involving a horse that is frickin completely intense.
- The ending redeemed the movie to a certain degree because it started to feel like it was selling out... hard.
- The director wasn't heavy handed or showoffy and he had some good shots and images and nicely controlled flow.

Three Bad Things About This Movie
- It answered some questions that I preferred left unanswered and didn't answer some things that needed answering.
- There was one too many plots running around in there or something. The overall movie could have been tighter.
- Most of the horror and scares were visual. It could have used some more dread.

In any case this movie was strong. It had more than its share of moments and it freaked me. The concept was new to me and the take on horror was relatively fresh. It should be seen. But I think it could have been more balls out. If you're going to give me evil for no other reason other than of evil... let's not play games here. Don't just sneak up and grab my shoulder from behind and give me a good scare... go for the throat and give me a bad one.

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