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RING
AKA:
Ringu ||
The Ring
Year:
1998 Reviewer: Phil
Mills
In
recent times, horror movies seem to have become obsessed with
gore and high body counts; criteria that appear to be a
necessity to make your movie a hit. What people seem to
have forgotten though, is that the most memorable outings in
this genre only required one key element - atmosphere.
If you can make the audience afraid of the basic premise and
immerse them in a good story then you don't need billions of
dollars to make a good movie. 'Ring' is one of a handful
recent films that seems to have realised this and it all works
because of a simple concept that is inventively filmed.
There
is a rumour circulating amongst children that if you stay up
late watching television, a mysterious woman will appear on
the screen followed by a phone call to inform you that you
will die in exactly one week. The question is, is this a
story created to stop kids watching too much television or is
there some truth to this idle gossip? When a schoolgirl
dies with no reasonable explanation other than her friend's
ranting about this so-called curse, reporter Reiko Asakawa
(Matsushima) finds herself hot on the trail of a hard copy of
this curious television broadcast. Once she uncovers one
though, she begins to realise that she has bitten off more
than she can chew as she too is told that she has only one
week left to live. Turning to her ex-husband, Professor
Ryuki Takayama (Sanada), the two set about trying to trace the
origins of the images so that they can attempt to stop
Asakawa's imminent death.
Horror
has never exactly been my genre of choice but recently I have
been broadening my horizons by viewing some of the classics
and 'Ring' is certainly one film that falls into this
category. Devoid of the usual quota of heavy bloodshed,
what makes this film succeed on so many levels is it's
psychological approach that relies on tension and anticipation
to produce the desired scare factor. This is setup by
director Nakata's uncanny eye for camera positioning as even
though he employs all the standard techniques for the
stereotypical frights, they never materialise at the expected
points which really heightens the atmosphere. All of the
film's ideas also take place in easy to relate to
scenarios and are never over stylised which gives them a much
greater sense of realism, so much so that you half expect to
see the video appear on your own television set.
Characters
within 'Ring' also exhibit far more realistic attributes than
any of their American teenage counterparts seen in the
'Scream' style of horror flick. Matsushima as Asakawa
actually has a personality and its interesting to see how her
character progresses through various states of fear. At
first, she displays a natural human curiousity before it
evolves into mindless panic as both her life and the lives of
her family are put under direct threat. Sanada is then
introduced into the fray which not only broadens our
background knowledge of Asakawa but also gives her a
convenient confidant and partner. However, what really
makes the characters work so well is that they never manage to
make you lose site of the fact that the main purpose of film
was always to explain the meaning behind the video.
Japan
has always been one step ahead of the game when it comes to
horror and it's good to see that 'Ring' continues this
tradition. This is psychological horror at it's best and
really manages to keep the audience on their toes throughout.
Well worth watching.
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