Fred's No Clue Movie Review:
A new weekly feature on indenation.com where I review a movie from my own perspective each week. 

This week:
"The Ring" – Directed by Gore Verbinski

    Do you like to be scared at the movies?  I know I do, but I haven’t seen a lot of movies recently that make me genuinely scared or creeped out.  Recently, I saw The Ring and boy oh boy, is that movie creepy. 

    I was intrigued by the trailer, with its quick cuts and student film looking experimental movie, so I figured I’d check it out.  Seems that most of America has already experienced the flick about watching a videotape which 7 days later causes you to die.  If you haven’t yet, go see it.  Naomi Watts, fresh off her bizzaro role in Mulholland Drive, gives a stellar performance as Rachel Keller, a mother who discovers the tape and watches it.  She’s a reporter trying to figure out the circumstances of the mysterious deaths of four teenagers, one of who is her niece.

    The movie is based on the Japanese film Ringu, and I found it exhilarating to watch.  It managed to scare me without blood splattering, minimal gory face shots, and no weapon-wielding villain.  It takes you on a journey into this world of crazy urban myth turned into reality.  The videotape in question is weird and is shown often throughout the film to provide clues.  Rachel enlists the help of her ex-boyfriend, who also happens to be the father of her son, to help her solve the tape’s mystery and hopefully end the curse. 

    I found the characters in the film intriguing.  All of them are flawed.  Rachel is a mother, who doesn’t take very good care of her son.  She loves him; she’s just not around much for him.  Her son, Aidan played by David Dorfman, is very independent for a young kid who loves his mom and apparently is used to being left alone.  He even seems to take care of her at times.  The boy’s dad, Noah played by Martin Henderson, isn’t around at all.  Noah and Rachel were very young when she had Aidan and she’s been raising him on her own.  The mystery of the ring centers around a creepy dysfunctional family as well.  I found it very refreshing to see these flawed characters.  Too often in films you see a super character that does it all and doesn’t have any real faults.  Rachel is allowed to continually make mistakes and isn’t the super heroine that I figured she would end up being.

    The film is filled with twists and turns in the plot, which was great.  You never know where it’s going to take you or where you’ll end up.  Gore Verbinski manages to scare you not just with images, but audio too.  It’s probably the best use of audio scare tactics that I’ve seen since I watched the re-issue of The Exorcist. 

    So go to a movie theater and see it.  Get sucked into the mystery of the ring.  You’ll be glad you did. 

    For additional information about the movie, visit http://www.ring-themovie.com     


Got comments?  Suggestions?  I’d love to hear them.

email me at no.clue@indenation.com

come back soon, until then, i’ll be at the movies…


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