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The Ring**** (Out of 4)Reviewed by Greg Ziglar
The old horror trick of questioning what we are actually seeing on the screen is a good one. Recently, for example, Mothman Prophecies gave us almost subliminal images of ....well, something. But here, the director takes the trick one step further. There is a film within this film that we watch over and over, often in slow motion. And the video starts changing. And we get deeper and deeper into this brilliant horror groove. And then we wonder if we are seeing what the characters are seeing on the video. What are we watching? What are they watching?
This movie feeds wonderfully into our evolutionary psyche. If we keep going, if we keep reproducing, if we keep up with the everyday rat race, then we may survive. Oh, by the way, the concept of the movie is simple and great. Seven days after watching a mysterious video, you die. I saw this, let me think, seven days ago and now....I....what is this on my computer screen..... |
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TM
The
most interesting aspect of this film is the juxtaposition between the first
60 seconds or so and the last few frames. The director, Gore Verbinski,
opens with a traditional dark stormy and stormy night. Inside the house
there is a mysterious ringing phone, a television that turns itself on, and
even a pair of scantily clad young women facing impending doom. We’ve seen
this before, and we don’t know whether to laugh or cringe. However, we get
a very disturbing image, and the director settles into a very hip
Hitchcockian groove from which a climb is impossible. And when those final
few frames flicker into darkness, we aren’t exactly sure what we have
seen. 
The
homages to Alfred Hitchcock are many, and they are beautifully done. A
camera peering into high-rise apartments is reminiscent of Rear Window.
However, the occupants seem obsessed with televisions. Do we now prefer a
video screen instead of the reality of a gorgeous dancer or a man perhaps
murdering his wife? And when the beautiful young heroine checks into a
creepy resort in the woods, we have the Norman Bates character from
Psycho at the lobby counter. 
Ongoing
references to the film title offer solutions to the horror. In one scene,
there are wheels of yellow from a lighthouse. A character states that his
work never ends. A child spins around and around on a playground vehicle.