MOVIE REVIEW – “Watch that movie and die in seven days!” No, we didn’t mean Rings, but rather that’s the very premise of the Ring horror movies series – now a trilogy – which is an adaptation of a Japanese horror flick as well. The third movie is once again seeing the long-haired, scary, undead girl return and haunt and kill some new protagonists.

The Ring, the first American movie was one of the better adaptation of a Japanese horror flick, called Ringu. The whole videotape with the undead girl out of the TV had an effective scare factor and both  Gore Verbinski, as the director and Naomi Watts playing the main protagonist excelled in the movie. The second movie was more like a disaster than “horror” so it’s no wonder, which we had to wait for ages for a third film. The main question is whether it was worth the wait or not…

New kids on the block

The main characters of this new horror are Julia (Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz) and her boyfriend, Holt (Alex Roe) gone to a campus in another city. Both characters find themselves on the receiving end of a terrifying curse that threatens to take her life in 7 days. It’s of course, Samara, our resident evil girl, who is menacing to kill everyone who sees her video in seven days – unless they make a copy of it make others see it.

Well, that’s pretty much what was about in the first two (or three, if we take into account the original Japanese movie) horror flick and great surprises or innovative ideas or are nowhere to be found here. The story is rather well written, digging a bit deeper into Samara’s past and the reason why she became a ghost.

There are some interesting characters there, like Gabriel (Johnny Galecki), the biology teacher with the huge ego, or Burke (Vincent D’Onofrio), a mysterious blind guy living near the cemetery, where Samara is supposed to be buried.

Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz plays well enough a sympathetic character to make us almost forget how Alex Roe, a Ken lookalike from the Barbie-doll family is such a dire actor, who can’t act if his life depended on it.

Scare-factory

Nowadays it’s pretty hard to make a truly scary horror movie, especially, when you are on a lower budget, but Rings fares rather well on that area. Some more or less cheap jump scares are of course here, but the whole scary mood of the movie is spot on, and it was a good idea to concentrate more on Samara’s past.

The first part of the movie also has some teenage horror feeling to it, which is fortunately quickly gone, by the second part, when our two heroes investigate Samara’s past.

Besides Samara, there’s another evil character – a human – who could have been strong as well, but unfortunately, acting skills were clearly lacking there to make him both fearsome and interesting.

Still, as a whole, scare-factor is rather OK in this third out – more, than it was in the pretty dire second episode.

Few surprises, but still an okay horror flick

Rings won’t make it into the history of classic horror films, but it’s still a rather well-done, enjoyable and sufficiently scary trip into Samara’s past and present. The scenario is without too many surprises, but it’s still a rather well-written story, with an ending which was to be expected, but which also wraps the whole movie nicely.

Some of the actings could have been better – especially from lady’s favorite Alex Roe, who is incapable of giving an at least credible performance as someone who is scared for his, or his girlfriend’s life – but Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz is okay, and so are other supporting actors.

If you don’t expect something truly innovative, or a deep psychological horror – and especially if you are a fan of the series – Rings might be worth to watch.

-BadSector-