Additional Posters Part 2:

A videotape that results in death when watched contains a dark family secret. This US version of the Japanese classic is a decent film that is well acted and pretty much follows the exact plot of the original film. There was a period where every successful foreign horror film got an English made version. I don't really have an issue with it because Ironically enough most I have seen are decent (example Let me in).
7/10

Might as well share my Ring story again. Saw this shortly after it was released on disc, late at night, alone. The movie freaked me out quite a bit, this type of freaky imagery always gets me. So as I take out the disc, at about 3 in the morning, my phone rings. I’m not ashamed to admit that a brief moment of sheer terror hit me and had me in literal tears.

Never had actual tears of fear happen before or since, but the visceral emotion that horror films often give me are a main reason why I’m here.

The Japanese original had me sitting up on the back of my couch with a pillow at the ready to cover my face ....

Not better than the original, but this remake always creeped me out.
Naomi Watts is extremely attractive in this, it’s almost distracting.

I think I prefer this one to the original. I was always under the impression this was another Culkin kid that I could dislike, but ha, that wasn't a Culkin.

I was in my prime when I saw this in the theater, and it also effectively scared the crap out of me. I remember not wanting to stand on the porch alone when I let the dog out upon getting home from the theater. He was on his own!

I prefer the original ... less slick and more stream-lined. This is still a good movie. The preference might come down to which one you saw first. Not the kind of movie you'd expect from Gore Verbanski (he followed this up with Pirates of the Caribbean). A Cure for Wellness is the only other thing in his filmography in a similar vein to The Ring.

Anyone try showing this to younger viewers? I'm curious how it plays with so much emphasis on an extinct technology (VHS). Although with Samara/Sadako's powers, you'd think she'd be able to do the same thing with newer technology (psychically imprint on video file instead of VHS tape).

I'd absolutely lay a ten-spot that the version a person saw first is the one they think is better.

I guess I will be the voice of dissent and state that I have never understood why this movie sits upon so many 10 ten list of horror films of the last 20 years.

I don't find it remotely scary, and it plays more like a thriller or murder mystery than something horrific. I would say it is because the tech is so outdated now but I saw this when it was first released and never understood the vast appeal. But then again, I don't understand the vast appeal of The Terrifier either, so what do I know?

This is well made movie. Well...get it? I was kind of surprised I had never caught several of the similarities this film has to George C Scott's The Changeling (1980) until this viewing.

The gore is minimal, the acting is good, and it is interesting to see the reporter find the real-life clues one by one on the video. But scary or emotional? Nah. I just don't get it, and this is probably at least the fourth time I seen it. I usually see movies multiple times over the years if they are a crowd favorite, but I somehow feel disconnected from them. I try to figure out why, but most just appear to be a matter of personal taste.

My wife and son watched it with me last night and they had never seen it before. I went into this with a fresh feeling and hoping they would maybe let me see the error of my ways. I asked them their opinions first after it was over so I wouldn't taint anything but theirs were similar to mine. They were both like, Ho-hum. My son also said it felt more to him to be a murder mystery thriller than horror before I said a word. Neither of them found it scary. Oh well.

My rating: *** out of *****

ps. Did anyone watch this on Shudder/AMC+? We did and it kept having slight, quick pauses between various scenes like they were streaming a TV version with places for commercials but luckily no commercials. It didn't seem edited in any way. I have run across this before on AMC+.

Samara is a supremely creepy incarnation of evil and her crawling out of the televsion might make ant movie it's in a 'classic.' Seeing this in theaters was a hogh; but I don't think it's held up well. The intensity of her revenge and it's injustice is legendary, I like that it's not just bump in the night horror but a moral sort of wrongs needing righting. The tape is a clever idea advancing forbidden knowledge tropes to a new medium, information could kill. The tape itself is nightmare fuel, abstract and weird. The tale here is an example of over explainarion, we dont need to know each element of the tape and why it exists - it gets slow and interjects explaination that really doesnt explain anything and where none is needed. The images end up being too literal. The 'investigation' sometimes feels too easy; a few google searches, easy access to medical files, etc. I wish the scares had been more consistently peppered in.

The Ring looks great in UHD; I never noticed how unique green hued it is and that helps the vibe a bit.