Most people are not aware that the very first “Ring” film was Japanese, myself included until a few years ago.
It started out has a trilogy of Japanese Novels which inspired two Manga film versions and also Japanese films notably Ringu And Ringu 2 plus TV programmes and sequels. It was not until the 2002 American release/remake of The Ring that the film came to the mainstream for people unaware of its origin. The 2002 film version was very popular among audiences, actually making five times more than what the film cost to make. No surprises that it was then joined by the sequel – The Ring Two. I have watched the Japanese Versions and also The Ring & The Ring Two so it felt like this new release would be a perfect review for me to undertake!
The original story centred around people watching the strange images of a murdered girl named Samara reaching out from beyond the grave for vengeance on a mysterious videotape, then being cursed and dying seven days after watching the tape, unless they found some other poor soul to watch the video clip, then the curse would be passed to them. Well in Rings they have updated and replaced the VHS tape with a digital video file of Samara now, which is viewable on many devices making the clip much more wide spread and dangerous!
Julia and Holt (Matilda Lutz and Alex Roe) are two teenagers in love. They are separated as Julia has to look after her ailing Mother and Holt goes off to college – so they keep the long distance relationship going via messages and Skype. However when Holt suddenly and inexplicably stops answering Julia’s calls she is desperate to find out why. She jumps in her car and drives to Holt’s college where she asks around to see if anybody has seen him, but nobody will tell her anything or say where he is.
Julia knows that Holt has been working on a project for his biology professor Gabriel (Johnny Galecki), but the professor denies knowing who Holt is, so Julia follows him to another classroom. She finds video screens and clocks which are of individual student names and which are counting down from different dates. Julie learns about the cursed video and that Holt watched it, so she watches it in order to save Holt. Julia follows the clues in her video and her visions that she starts seeing so she can unravel the mystery, save her own life and maybe finally give Samara’s spirit some peace.
Rings is certainly better then its predecessor The Rings Two, but will never live up to the original, but what film does? The story was well written and a change from the original but it felt more of a mystery then a horror film! I liked the update in the form of the digital file rather than the old VHS tape. The actors, although not brilliant, run well with the script they had. If you’re a fan like me then it’s just about worthy, if not watch The Ring then this. Overall not great but not bad either just a decent horror film, that has been updated for the digital age!
Author: Paul, York store
