Creepy Frightful Scary in ''The Ring''. Review on The Ring Movie

The Ring is perfectly timed for those looking to be psychologically ravaged this Halloween by the scarey sights and sounds of horror & terror on screen.

And part of me wants to hail The Ring as the best psychological horror film since The Sixth Sense, or The Silence of the Lambs and compare it to movies such as Psycho, or The Exorcist, not only for its horror but for its mystery as well. But I just can't, because in the end The Ring leaves you asking, ''ok... so what???,'' which is too bad, because if The Ring hadn't left me asking that specific question, it would have undoubtedly been the best horror movie I've seen in a long, long time.

The Ring is based on the Japanese hit Ringu, and tells the suspenseful story of a strange and supernatural videotape that is chock-full of spooky ghoulish sounds and breathtakingly haunting imagery. Of course, urban legend has it that if you watch this tape, the phone will ring and seven days later you'll end up dead. And a group of teens does just that, and proves the legend to be possibly true when they themselves end up dead seven days later.

As such, the aunt of one of the teens, Racheal Keller, begins an investigation to discover the mystery behind the tape. Played by Naomi Watts, who is perhaps best known for her role in David Lynch's Mulholland Drive, carries herself well as Racheal Keller, balancing both her fears for her family with her quest for the truth as part of her job as an investigative journalist.

In the end, The Ring does do everything it should do to be suspenseful, surreal and very scary. Overall, it's general setup is interesting and the characters are drawn out well by director Gore Verbinski. I loved the beginning that seemed to set the movie up as being another Scream ripoff, but quickly veered in an opposite direction that soundly assured me that this movie would not be another Scream clone (and it's interesting, because the screenwriter of The Ring also wrote Scream 3). And kudos must go to composer Hans Zimmer for creating a soundtrack that so wonderfully sets an ominous and creepy tone that highlights the many freaky scenes, making them all the more memorable.

Of particular notice is up and comer David Dorfman, as Racheal's son, who will undoubtedly be compared to Haley Joel Osment, but nonetheless gives a credible performance as the boy who may know too much. If nothing else, Dorfman's character only proves that children in literature always know the answer, and the adults should start listening a little more!

In the end though, The Ring leaves you hanging, and shaking your head in disbelief. For all the fright and horror The Ring puts you through, the resolution is disappointing at best. There are no revelations about religion or the depths of the human soul or of the strange power of obsession and possession.

And I do admit that the absence of this would be fine if the movie weren't so driven to find these things. In the end, it feels as if they had only put another few weeks of thought into the screenplay, they easily could have come up with some sound explanations and insights to more deftly explain the horror that surrounds them all.

You may not die before you see The Ring, but you will be haunted, even if you do end up feeling empty inside.

Grade: B

(Movie originally reviewed on October 12, 2002)