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The Ring (2002) R
A remake of the Japanese horror. Again a female journalist investigates a videotape that kills its viewer after seven days. The basics are the same but lots of details have been changed (for the worse).
I just don't understand why some of these remakes are done (for money, yes, but I mean why can't Americans just watch the foreign originals). With 30 times larger budget we have some exactly replicated scenes, lots of unneeded horror cliches and severely mangled main plot. I don't think The Ring manages to improve anything from the original but many things are way worse.
There are some positive things in the film too: acting is quite good, Samara is kinda decent character (is anyone surprised?) and the famous television scene looks fine (but for some reason it's not as creepy as the original). And there's no psychic ex-husband but now he's just an annoying manchild (so that our main character can nag to him about never growing up, I'm sure). I don't like the mudded color palette used. Soundtrack is semi-OK but little soulless.
It's not exactly bad but quite close. Only recommended if you've seen the original and want to see another take on the subject (that reminds me that I still need to watch The Ring Virus one day).
A remake of the Japanese horror. Again a female journalist investigates a videotape that kills its viewer after seven days. The basics are the same but lots of details have been changed (for the worse).
I just don't understand why some of these remakes are done (for money, yes, but I mean why can't Americans just watch the foreign originals). With 30 times larger budget we have some exactly replicated scenes, lots of unneeded horror cliches and severely mangled main plot. I don't think The Ring manages to improve anything from the original but many things are way worse.
There are some positive things in the film too: acting is quite good, Samara is kinda decent character (is anyone surprised?) and the famous television scene looks fine (but for some reason it's not as creepy as the original). And there's no psychic ex-husband but now he's just an annoying manchild (so that our main character can nag to him about never growing up, I'm sure). I don't like the mudded color palette used. Soundtrack is semi-OK but little soulless.
It's not exactly bad but quite close. Only recommended if you've seen the original and want to see another take on the subject (that reminds me that I still need to watch The Ring Virus one day).