Premise - Seven days after a group of Seattle teenagers watch a strange video tape they are all found dead. The cousin of one of the teenagers, Rachel (Naomi Watts), works for a newspaper and begins an investigation into the deaths and the origins of the strange video tape 

I cut and pasted the above paragraph from my previous review for the Japanese film, ‘Ring’. I watched ‘Ring’ last Halloween and I found it to be an original horror film, with an excellent sense of tension and dread. As good as it was I felt it was hurt by a pedestrian middle third that abandoned the creepy feeling of the rest of the film for a standard bit of Scooby-Doo style investigation. Ultimately I liked the film, but looked forward to the remake as I felt there was real room for improvement, especially in the middle section. So, how does the US remake measure up?

About the same as the original as it happens. For the most part the remake is pretty much just that, a flat out remake, we have the same basic story, the same characters and the same creepy feeling. Screen writer Ehren Kruger seems to have realised the originals middle third flaws and has quite dramatically reworked this section. Unfortunately he hasn’t reworked it that much and what we again get, is a fairly middle of the road investigation, albeit this time about horses. Since I was fully aware of how the movie was going to play out, much of the nice, creepy feeling that I got when I watched the original was gone, but this won’t be a problem if you haven’t seen he original.

One thing that this version does have in its favour is the overall look of the film. Clearly helped by a bigger budget than his Japanese peers, Gore Verbinski has created a damn good looking movie. All washed out tones with splashes of contrasting reds; it’s an impressive looking film. Also carried over from the original is the look of the video tape itself. A series of abstract black and white images accompanied by an unsettling ambient soundtrack, the tape is as off putting as it was in ‘Ring’.

The one thing that I didn’t think they did quite as well was the ‘money shot’. I’m not going to spoil it, but it happens in the last 10 minutes of the film and in ‘Ring’, it blew me away. In ‘The Ring’ it is not as impressive, perhaps because I knew it was coming, but more likely is that it just plain isn’t handled as well as it was previously. The shot in ‘Ring’ looked real and natural, but in ‘The Ring’ it appears to have been touched up and looks a bit off.

Another plus point for the remake is the presence of Naomi Watts in the lead role. Damn if she isn’t hot as hell in this film, I could just go for a swim in those big blue eyes of hers…… Yes, well anyway…. Not only does she look good, but she is a bloody good actress as well. She finds the perfect balance between tough heroine and scream queen that so few find in the horror genre. Opposite her is an unknown actor called Martin Henderson, he does well and he and Watts make an acceptable couple.

Young actor David Dorfman has a difficult task. How to play a young child in a supernatural movie and NOT be compared to Haley Joel Osmant? Unfortunately he doesn’t cut the mustard and comes over particularly wooden. Brain Cox (who seems to be in every film I’m watching recently) has a strange role later in the film and is (as usual) excellent.

Since The Ring is pretty much a straight remake of Ring it also carries over the original films many gaping plot holes. The investigation of the tape sometimes takes a few jumps of deduction that would leave Sherlock Holmes scratching his head and the ending leaves an unsatisfactorily tidy feeling in the mouth. Such things are common place in the horror genre though and the movie doesn’t suffer that much for these little nitpicks.

At the end of the day The Ring is an infuriating movie. It seems to realise the problems that the original had and, in fixing them, creates all new problems of its own. If you haven’t seen the original film then The Ring will fit the bill as an affecting horror film to get the blood pumping. A good look, some nice performances and a genuinely creepy feel make it one of the better horror films I have seen from recent times. Be wary though, it may put you off watching videos or answering the phone for a while…….