The Ring (2002) Retro Review

Justin here. As a tie-in to the third entry coming out this weekend, I figured I'd talk about the original 2002 American remake of the first Ring movie. A little backstory. I remember when this film first came out, it was huge. It had the same kind of marketing like The Blair Witch Project did where they had promotional material on various websites and the video tape from the film would be broadcasted in various places. The first film was about a woman named Rachel Keller, a journalist from Seattle who discovers that her niece Katie had died from a horrible freak accident. When she discovers a mysterious video tape was involved with Katie's death, she watches the tape that contains shocking images and receiving a phone call that tells her that she has "seven days". I'll be honest, I really enjoyed the first Ring film. It was definitely one of the first PG-13 horror films that sparked a huge wave of remakes of J-Horror films seen in America later and it's definitely one of the only PG-13 horror films that I do find well made. Gore Verbinski (who later directed the first 3 Pirates films), knows when to time the scares and didn't rely on gore as he did with atmosphere and the creepy scenes involving Samara. Also, the cinematography is absolutely stunning in this. It has a green hue look to it that captures the almost bleak tone of the film and it's almost like an homage to a David Fincher film, in a good way. This was the first film I watched with Naomi Watts and she is perfectly cast as Rachel. She captures the innocence, the good natured, and emotional integrity of a woman who is desperately trying to protect her son Aiden from the danger involving the video tape. I really liked the way the story flowed with the time running out and Rachel having to stop the terror from happening. Also, I definitely got into the dark backstory with Samara and the way it paid off in the end. I highly recommend the first one. With little to no flaws, I give it a 9/10.