10/29/17 – day twenty-nine of thirty-one days of horror!
I considered doing Hideo Nakata’s original Ringu to prove
what a culturally sophisticated guy I am, but what can I say – I prefer Gore
Verbinski’s stylish 2002 white person remake, The Ring. What I really
appreciate about Verbinski’s take is how effectively it gets under your skin,
taking the premise of a cursed video tape and layering on the dread so heavily
that you forget how absurd the whole thing is. Also effective are the visuals; while
the look of TV-emerging, black hair-draped ghost girl Samara is lifted directly
from the Japanese, the foggy location photography and arresting yet beautiful
imagery is top shelf eye candy, arguably some of the best ghost story
atmosphere since Kubrick’s The Shining. The cast is great too – Naomi Watts is typically
strong in the lead, David Dorfman is minimally annoying in the kid role and
Brian Cox puts in a small but memorable appearance – but the real star of The
Ring is Samara, an unforgettable horror villain that deserves her place among the
great movie monster icons and has gone to inspire nightmares in perpetuity.
This Halloween bust out the old VCR and pop in that creepy VHS tape that’s been
lying around – or maybe just watch The Ring. (Watching Ringu is also
acceptable).
