Americans
can't read, so they remade 'Ring' with slightly worse actors and a
more heavy handed script. Of course the main characters have to be
literally related to the girl that dies at the start, her son has to
literally be wearing a little grey suit to show us how old he is at
heart, she has to go visit the crazy girl for a cheap creepy scene.
Watching it right after the original makes it quite funny, seeing all
the subtle little character traits turned into clichés. A good
example of the differences between the American and Japanese versions
of this film are in the victims. In the original they're ghostly
white, their eyes are wide and staring, and their mouths are agape in
terror. They seem to have been killed by the fright of the last thing
they saw. There's no gore, but that almost makes it more scary. Then
in the American version the first victim is blotchy and appears to
the in the initial stages of decay, despite only having died a few
hours ago. Her eyes are bloodshot and turned up in her skull and her
mouth is open and full of blood and gore, which is covering the lower
portion of her face making her look like a zombie. 'The Ring' relies
of a quick shot of the victim and a stinger cord to create fear,
while the original indulges in a lingering close up as a police
officer pushes the body back into a sitting position (something about
which is morbid in itself, it's like watching old holocaust footage
or something). Straight away the remake feels more lazy and cheap,
and it's a feeling that doesn't go away.
It's
still a moderate to decent horror by itself though. It looked more
expensive, the quality of the film was higher, and there were plenty
of nice artsy shots. I really liked some of the clips in the video in
this one, especially the one of the maggots that jumps to a similar
aerial shot of bodies jostling in mud. The plot was also far more
cohesive, if traditional and boring, than the original.
Remakes
are usually worse than the originals. Sometimes they're better.
Interestingly, this film is better than the original at what the
Japanese version was weakest at (pacing, story structure, and the
crispness of the visuals) but doesn't live up to anything else (most
notably the originals great acting, suspense, subtlety and general
quality of the scares).
I
loved the little nod to 'Rear Window' as she looks out and sees all
the other people in their front rooms with their TVs on - one of them
even has a broken leg.
The Ring: 37.8