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The Month of Horror Day 16: The Ring

Basement contributor Matt Bellamy has taken it upon himself to watch and review at least one horror movie a day for the month of October . . . because he's awesome that way! Tonight, Bellamy learns that before he dies, he sees the ring. 

Yeah, not that original. Sue me.

Like many other acclaimed director's before him, Gore Verbinski ('Pirates of the Caribbean', 'Rango', 'The Lone Ranger') made his big splash in the horror genre, a great creative outlet to hone your skills and work on your own cinematic voice! Now, unlike many other famous director's who also started out in that genre back in the day, Verbinski chose to go the remake route instead of carving out something original which can be very tricky unless executed with the utmost skill. Very happy to say that the American remake of 'The Ring' is a huge success and one of the very best modern horror films, let alone one of the best remakes.

Terrifying upon its release all those years ago (11 years ago!) 'The Ring' still holds up and is just as scary and disturbing. Naomi Watts plays the journalist who becomes intrigued by a story about a mysterious videotape that seems to be the catalyst for many gruesome deaths and the deeper she digs, the further she goes towards crossing a line she may not be able to get out from alive. From a technical standpoint, this movie is a triumph with some seriously stunning cinematography that really adds to the atmosphere, it draws you right in and keeps you captivated the whole time.

This is a remake of the Japanese horror film 'Ringu' and the only problem with the massive success of this movie was that suddenly movie studios decided it would be a great idea to remake all kinds of Asian horror movies for American audiences and it got to a saturation point where we got worn out on them very, very quickly. You may even look back on 'The Ring' now and think negatively about it, not necessarily because perhaps you didn't like the movie but because of the glut of all those other types of remakes that simply weren't all that great. Forget about those other movies and that time period of Asian horror remake madness and instead just focus on this one, the one that started it all because it really is a great horror flick and one absolutely worth re-visiting!


 
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