5 out of 5

Director: Gore Verbinski

With a trio of blockbuster Pirates films under his belt post The Ring, it’s a true testament to the director’s strengths watching this film.  Gore either did his horror homework or just has the skill to match his vision to the script – either way, ‘Ring’ is so effective as a terror-fest because of how committed it is to being a movie.  Along with ‘Quarantine,’ this flick stands with a small group of films that Americanize their source material – the Japanese ‘Ringu’ for this one – but in so doing, actually ..maybe.. improve on the original, as opposed to dumbing it down with American tropes and stock characters.  Yes, ‘The Ring’ is over-explained, but it does so as an evolution throughout the film, which makes you feel like you’re delving into things along with our characters – hallmarks of the best mysteries – as opposed to someone blabbing the whole story right before the credits.  And while we do go down a sequel road at the film’s conclusion, the way in which this makes the viewer somewhat complicit in the continuance is ingenious.  Gorgeously cold and creepy cinematography, a nicely mellow and unnerving Hans Zimmer score (before he discovered the bombast used in Inception), and everything framed so patiently and purposefully by Gore, this ghost tale about a “killer” film – watch it and you die 7 days later – is given so much grace where it could’ve just been dropped as summer horror fare.  Ebert didn’t dig The Ring, in part, because he felt it was rather unrelenting, but that sombre tone is one of the best things about it.  The ghost never sleeps; the film never lets up; that first shot of the dead body never ceases to give me chills.  Start to finish, one of the most solid and just flat-out well-made horror films ever.