Starring:
 Naomi Watts
 Brian Cox

Directed by:
 Gore Verbinski

Running Time:  

Overall Crave Factor

Much hype has been built up around this remake of the mysterious Japanese horror hit RINGU. While I have not seen the original, personally (I will degrade myself in any way necessary to get my hands on a copy), I have read the script and heard numerous descriptions of the sheer terror involved in that film. After reading many, many glowing reviews for this U.S. version, I went into the dark recesses of the theatre today looking for a serious scare. I was not wholly disappointed.

Naomi Watts, the firecracker ingénue of David Lynch’s MULHOLLAND DRIVE, gives another fantastic performance as the perplexed heroine desperate to save herself and her son in the face of a deadly mystery. Starting out as a career-driven, cold to the world reporter, who also happens to be a single mom. Over the course of the film, Watts displays great talent in subtly altering the character and warming the audience to her. She is the core of the film and carries the entire story on her slight but able shoulders. The supporting cast, as usual, is a mixed bag. Martin Henderson, who plays Watts’ ex, who helps her in her investigation is the kind of bland male lead that could have been played by any number of young and vaguely handsome actors. David Dorfman, the young actor who plays Watts’ son, is very reminiscent of Haley Joel Osment in THE SIXTH SENSE, but much, much more intense. Brian Cox does his usual stellar job as a possibly evil horse breeder, and Daveigh Chase (the voice of LILO of LILO & STITCH) is tremendous in an alternately tragic and terrifyingly menacing role as the little girl lost.

Bit parts featuring Lindsay Frost, Richard Lineback and Jane Alexander are little more than walk-ons, as the action almost exclusively follows Watts and her son.

The scares are genuine. I only recall one cheap pop with a millipede, and otherwise the films terror is all suspense and dread. Very few films in recent memory have been as atmospheric or flat out creepy as this one. It is well shot, well acted and well directed.

Gore Verbinski, director of the off-beat hits MOUSE HUNT and THE MEXICAN, both of which defied Hollywood conventions while still staying mainstream enough to hold an audience. This film will undoubtedly be his ticket to the A-list. The most interesting touch I think he has added is the subtext of modern media as a metaphoric Achilles heel to our Home Video society. It’s not preachy, but the suggestion is there. Subtle and restrained to avoid sacrificing the story for a statement.

As I said, I was not wholly disappointed, and the only thing detracting from the experience was my familiarity with the material. Originally based on a series of ultra-popular novels by Japanese writer Koji Suzuki, which were then adapted into a smash hit film series starting with the 1995 TV movie RINGU: KANZEN-BAN and followed by

4 feature films and a TV series. I read the translated script for the 1998 feature version of RINGU, which is the basis for the Verbinski remake.(Email me if you are desperate for a copy, but at your own risk). Having been through the basic story already, I was finding myself anticipating the plot twists and searching my memory for connections to the script. Had I not been exposed to all of the spoilers and the script, I daresay this one would have blown my mind. This is a movie deserving of the kind of praise heaped on THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT 3 years ago, or THE EXORCIST in 1973.

See it. Then have nightmares. Then convince someone else to see it.