My Review of "The Ring"

Me | 10/20/02 | Me

[NeoCaveman]

. the other team I hate is Washington....so that means we'll live in DC next....lol

DC? Cool you can hangout with xtrasalicous, she might even let you borrow her maid Consuela.....

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

I think I would get into trouble around xs......lol.......she's much badder than I am..........

[NeoCaveman]

XS, did you hear that? Me thinks she's casting dispersions on ya....or is that a challenge ;-)

[Portnoy]

The Ring now ranks among my top Five scary movies. It was like riding a rollercoaster.

[Pyro7480]

I saw "The Ring" late on Friday night. I saw it with 2 of my friends. We all agree that it was one of the scariest films we had ever seen. The film did leave a few unanswered questions with us too, but we talked to someone who had seen the original Japanese version, and he said that some things are explained in this version. We also noticed the "false" ending, and we were glad it didn't end there, because it wouldn't have been as good of a movie. My friends were glad that they weren't sleeping alone in their places, because they probably wouldn't have slept! I have never reacted to a horror movie like I did to the "Ring." They did a good job of leading the audience on and then scaring us out of the blue. I agree with other people's analysis of it. "The Ring" is more of a psychological thriller, and that is why it scares so well.

[Bella_Bru]

It is now one of my favorites too. I even went this weekend to see it a second time. :-)

[boris]

I hate horror movies.

I have recently been giving some thought to the popularity of such films. Here goes:

The notion that these are essentially pornographic is not new with me. They represent the pornography of death.

Part of the "appeal" of horror films is the subconscious notion that "better it should happen to them than to me." Some also allow the viewer to feel superior to the victims: "I'd never open that closet that conceals the crazed axe-murderer!"

There is no doubt that a part of the human psyche enjoys being scared. Thus the popularity of amusement-park-barfo-rides, campfire ghost stories, and urban myths.

Forgive me but Hitchcock did not have to show exploding bodily organs and gore on the floor. Nor did Lovecraft, or Poe. Their horror was in the mind of the viewer or reader, not slathered all over the room. Hollywood, in its ham-fisted quest for ever-greater shock value, has lost all subtlety. This is why they can never seem to make a decent movie of a Heinlein SF story (think The Puppet Masters or Starship Troopers, or a Lovecraft one either ("From Beyond" is about the best they can do).

But mostly my recent thoughts relate to our inability to confront and deal with the fact of our own mortality.

My health is not good, so I do a fair share of thinking about my own mortality. I've been studying Buddhism as an intellectual exercise (this gun-owning Jew is not ready to convert to Buddhism), and one of the central notions is that awareness requires awareness of one's own death--and acceptance of it.

IMHO, pornography of death and violence is at least as bad--as damaging and corrupting--as sexual pornography. So I will not watch these movies. A personal choice.

--Boris the Zen Jew

[Bella_Bru]

I really do not have a problem with sexual pornography.

And it was a damn good film.

I hope you get better soon.