The Ring

If I've ever been scared shitless while watching a movie, this horror film is to blame. I don't know about the Japanese original, but Verbinski has managed to handle an absolutely brilliant and in itself terrifying premise in perhaps the best possible way. When Naomi Watts plays that evil videotape in that remote cabin, I was reluctant to watch it myself, as if I was already expecting a phone call and the deadly words "seven days" when the tape ended. Yes, the atmosphere is incredibly dense from start to finish, it's a completely different kind of fear, one I haven't encountered in any other horror film so far. The gloomy atmosphere is further deepened by the absolutely convincing performance of little David Dorfman. And yet, I’m not giving it a full rating. While the film was a real test of nerves, its story didn't have nearly the power of, say, The Shining or Hooper's Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Rather, it's a very skilfully packaged and spiced omelette that loses a bit of its flavour on a second viewing. But only a little, really... 80% (16/02/2012)

There are some excellent scenes, and a few compositionally clever shots, but after it finished I told myself “Is that it?”. I don't know what it was that didn't work, but I just wasn't scared, which is a pretty serious problem with horror. The Ring just fizzled through my head. I have quite a problem with remakes of Japanese horror movies. (02/03/2003)

A remarkable thing. The Japanese original is probably a completely different film, but Gore Verbinski managed to capture a brilliant atmosphere in his remake, he succeeded in several nice compositions and visually excellent scenes. Traditionally, a ton of attention is drawn to the exceptional Naomi Watts, who has been in her best acting form in the past decade. (09/02/2014)

Though The Ring doesn’t come up with anything new in the context of clichés and the screenplay has some lapses in logic, it is so brilliantly made that it can only be praised. It’s a razor-sharp horror flick with bleak cinematography, a terrifying soundtrack, a perfectly cast little boy and, mainly, the beautiful, natural and spontaneous Naomi Watts. (06/04/2003)

After more than ten years since the creation of the film, I am surprised how much the audience is fixated on Kruh as a devastating horror. And yet it works much better in its thrilling suspenseful dimension. Verbinski's move with the endless delaying of all the scary moments evidently succeeded. It then leads the viewer towards death through suspenseful scenes (watching the tape, discovering its images in the real world, the horse, the old Morgan) right to the literal edge of the well. You don't want to hurt anyone, do you? - But I do (29/01/2006)