The Ring
May 2003 Reviewed by: Rad Bennett Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

This movie was 2002’s horror-flick sensation, a movie guaranteed to scare the bejesus out of its audience members and hyped in such a manner that one almost had to see it just to be included in the latest party conversation. The theatrical showing was advertised on TV with what seemed like a 20- or 30-second spot every 20 minutes. Films such as this are usually tepid, take-the-money-and-run affairs, and The Ring lived up these dubious goals.

True, The Ring does not look cheap. It boasts lavish photography and often-scary camera work, and even an effective score by Hans Zimmer. But its acting-challenged cast plays it like a B-movie and its script is riddled with plot holes and distractions. Perhaps one can blame the original book for this, but Hollywood has never shied away from "correcting" the written word before. Why this time?

The basic plot is simple: There’s a videotape circulating that shows some very fuzzy and snowy images that make little sense. It ends with a barely discernible shot of a well. In the movie, if one watches this tape to its conclusion, the telephone will ring and the viewer will be informed that he or she has seven days to live. At the end of seven days, the person dies a mysterious death. A prologue shows two teen victims of the curse; this beginning segues to the life of investigative reporter Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts), a woman who doesn’t scare easily. Rachel has watched the cassette herself and sets out to methodically track its origins. The journey takes her to a horse farm on an island off the coast. The movie, however, ends three times, and strains credibility to the breaking point. To be sure, there are a few scary scenes on the way, but the whole impetus is destroyed by the bumpy finale.

DreamWorks has provided a crackerjack video transfer for this underwhelming film. The movie is shot to appear slightly yellowish or greenish in overall tone, and that eerie color palette is perfectly caught on the DVD. The sound is atmospheric: the surround channels are used to heighten the terror in several scenes. I do not detect the DTS tracks as being any better than the Dolby Digital ones. Most people "perceive" DTS as being better because those tracks are usually transferred at a level a few decibels louder than the Dolby Digital ones. That’s my two cents on that.

The extras are lame. Billed as "a never-before-seen short film created by Gore Verbinski," the section labeled "Don’t Watch This" is no more than chronological outtakes from the movie. Another extra, labeled "Look Here," is merely a promotional spot containing trailers for Ringu, Catch Me if You Can, and 8 Mile. There is an Easter egg that allows you to see the whole fuzzy videotape that is the focus of the film’s plot. And as extras go, that’s it!

The Ring is based on a Japanese film, Ringu, which is in turn based on a novel by Suzuki Koji, written in 1991 as the first of a trilogy. The book and movie were immensely popular in Japan, but the movie was kept out of the American market so the U.S. version could gain a foothold. Now that it has, DreamWorks is releasing Ringu on DVD in addition to The Ring. I watched it. The good news: the video quality is fantastically good, and razor sharp, with good, natural colors and contrast. The sound is effective. The bad news: Ringu is dull. The scares are not as good as the ones in The Ring, and the characters seem to talk inanely at great length (both movies are far too long for the material they contain). The first half of the film almost put me to sleep.

One of the ads for The Ring screams out "It’s the last thing you see before you die." If that is the case, you had better get a new life ASAP. 

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