Ringu (1998)/ The Ring (2002)
These two films have given me more sleepless nights than pretty much any other horror film. Combining a overwhelming sense of melancholy, a dark mystery that just gets darker and darker, horrific images of the art-house type, and the knowledge of unavoidable death by fear, they are some of the most frightening films ever made, in this man's point of view. I think the only reason I fell asleep the week after seeing The Ring in theaters (which I knew nothing about as the trailer for the film was non-descriptive) was due to exhaustion. As I've stated many times before, I love allowing myself to be drawn in completely and deeply into films I watch. To let them take me away with it. I did that seeing this movie for the first time, sitting in my dark theater seat, completely enthralled yet scared out of my wits at the same time. I was 17 at the time the film came out in October of 2002. It was a choice between seeing this and Swimfan, and my family, my friend Michael and I obviously made the right choice. Over the 11 years since the film was released, the criticism of the film has grown, (it was given good reviews on it's original release) partially due to the film's horrible sequel and partially due to the imitators it spawn, most of which were pretty bad. However, this film itself is a remake, which a lot of people didn't know at the time... Including me.
The original film, Ringu, was a Japanese film made in 1998, which was itself based on a Japanese novel of the same name written by Koji Suzuki which had plenty of differences from all the film versions which I won't go into, as the book should be read as well, as it's pretty great. And since it's different, that's another reason for you to read it. Anyways, the original film isn't too different from the American remake that came four years later. Directed by Hideo Nakata, the film follows Reiko, a newspaper reporter who investigates the strange death of a group of teenagers who it seems all watched a videotape and who all died seven days later. She stupidly watches the tape herself along the way, and both her son Yoichi and her ex-husband Ryuji watch the film as well, getting cursed themselves. The mystery of the tape, which they try to solve by studying the film, leads them to Izu Oshima Island and an event in the past that everyone wants to bury. The Japanese film is actually not quite as dreary as the American version, but it's just as scary. There are enough differences to warrant watching both films. Even the images on the cursed video are different, along with the story of the girl involved. There's no CGI as there is in the American version, which leads to an added sense of realism, however the Japanese acting style may turn some off.... or the subtitles. I think by this point, you can assume I'd never tell you to watch a dubbed film. Subtitles all the way.
The American version of the film was directed by Gore Verbinski, who would go straight to directing Pirates of the Caribbean after this film, his future appearing to be very bright. Sadly this year he directed the box office and critical bomb The Lone Ranger, but that's neither here nor there. His directing style in this film is very much an homage to David Fincher, director of Seven, Zodiac, The Game, and Fight Club. It's set in Seattle, Washington instead of Japan, bringing with it the neverending gloominess of the area. It's seemingly always rainy or misty, and the film has a greenish blue tint to it. I believe this was the first film I noticed that effect used, and color tinting films is now commonplace. Without it, I wonder if the mood of the film would still be as dark, dank and sad.
The films both have horrifying scenes besides the videos themselves. The visit to Samara's family home in the remake is so full of dread and sadness that it permeates every frame. The empty horse stables, the run down barn with the loft made up as a small kids room, how you can see landmarks from the images on the video... Even thinking about it creeps me out right now. In the original film, there's a scene not in the American version which is a vision of Sadako's mother's botched psychic reading. The Japanese film keeps a lot of things just barely in shadow so you have to think "did I just see what I though I saw", and that's what makes it so frightening. Even viewing the movie with other people, it's frightening to me.
Now, let me point out that this film did not start the tradition of Japanese women with long black hair covering their faces scaring people. That's been around for a long long time. They are called onryo. The Japanese are a very image based culture, using visuals to elicit emotion, and it's a long tradition having been used in kabuki theater and in older Japanese horror films like Onibaba or Kuroneko. Both totally different films, but both very much visual horrors.
You may have noticed I did not link to any clips this time. The truth is, I mean to sleep tonight, and watching clips right now would leave me awake for the rest of the night. My mind tends to wander at night, and usually to things I would rather not think about when trying to get to sleep. After all, I have a TV in my room... One big enough for some girl to come out of and scare me to death... and it's less than 4 feet from my bed.
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