My Review of "The Ring"

Let me start by saying there is no way I am going to sleep tonight. I do not scare easily, but this movie, The Ring , has scared the living you-know-what out of me. This film is a recycled version of a Japanese film, Ringu, but that film was withheld from release in this country, so as not to spoil the American version.

The premise of the film is that people are mysteriously dying 7 days after viewing a video tape. The tape is described as being "someone's nightmare". An investigative reporter starts looking into the story after her teenaged niece dies suddenly. The reporter, Rachel, discovers that her niece's friends also died, at the exact same time, exactly 7 days after viewing the tape. Her investigation leads her to a horse farm, a mental hospital, and a really creepy lodge.

The film does leave a few unanswered questions, which drives me a bit crazy. There is a false ending, which I found amusing because when it happened, some people started to leave. Once they realized that it was a false ending, they started to come back. You'll know that it is a false ending, because it is too neat and a bit generic (FReepers are smarter than the average Joe).

The tagline for this movie is: Before you die, you see the ring. I am not going to tell you what the ring is, because that would be too much of a spoiler.

Just do yourself a favor and see it during the day. Bring someone with you to hide under, but don't be surprised if they try to hide under you.

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.

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

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