Before You Die, You See the Ring

Ringu

Before I start, a friend admonished me about spoilers in this year's Shocktober series. None of the movies I'm talking about are new, and if you haven't seen them by now, you're not a true horror fan, anyway. Still, in the interest of being fair, please note that every post this month will contain spoilers, so if you haven't seen a film I'm discussing, don't read the post until you have. Anyway...

I resisted seeing The Ring when it was released to theaters in 2002. It had (or so I thought) too many things going against it: First, director Gore Verbinski's only previous feature film was the 1997 family comedy Mousehunt (a fine movie for 10 year olds and their 60+ grannies, but not exactly what most horror fans get excited about). What the heck did he know about making a horror movie? Second, it was a remake of a Japanese horror movie. Thoughts of men in silly rubber monster suits stomping about Tokyo were somehow unavoidable. Third, the premise just seemed ridiculous: watch a videotape and die 7 days later. Really? I am happy to report that when I finally saw The Ring, I was pleasantly surprised to find that all of my preconceptions were wrong.

When her young cousin Katie dies mysteriously, journalist Rachel (Naomi Watts) investigates the circumstances surrounding Katie's death and the mysterious video tape she watched seven days earlier. The tape is a pastiche of disturbing images which, upon further review, seem to be more than just magnetic images (Rachel is actually able to pull a fly out of her TV when the tape is paused on its image). Her investigation eventually leads her to a lighthouse on Moesko Island, off the coast of Washington state. There she finds a former horse rancher (the original Hannibal Lecter, Brian Cox) whose wife murdered their adopted daughter Samara, by throwing her down a well and it seems that the titular "ring" is the light that Samara saw at the top of the well just before shew died. Apparently, Samara wants revenge and gets it by visiting and killing anyone who watches the supernaturally created video tape. And the only way to avoid dying is to make a copy of the tape and show it to someone else, which is what Rachel does to keep her own son Aiden from dying after he watches the copy she had.

Based on the novel and film Ringu, Verbinski (Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl and the upcoming The Lone Ranger) manages to translate the Japanese original into a an accessible and often creepy film for American audiences, thanks in great part to his terrific leading lady. Watts, (who will next be seen in The Impossible; Movie 43 and as Princess Diana in Diana) is terrific as a realist who begins to doubt reality as the world she thinks she knows begins to make less and less sense. Verbinski's visuals are both intriguing and disturbing and the film's rather ambiguous ending leaves you wanting to know more. The sequel The Ring Two (from Ringu director Hideo Nakata), is less successful, despite the presence of Watts, Gary Cole, Elizabeth Perkins and Sissy Spacek.

More, anon.
Prospero

Ghosts in the Machines

In the late 90's and early Aughts, Japanese Horror (or "J-Horror") was all the rage. Popularized by American adaptions of films like Ringu (The Ring) and Ju-on (The Grudge), these usually bizarre and often nonsensical tales of terror combined ancient Japanese mythology with modern Japanese technology to provide a unique perspective on Japanese culture. The least successful American adaption of these movies (2006's Pulse) came from one the best J-Horrors: 2001's Kairo.

Kudo works at a nursery with her friends Sasano, Toshio and Taguchi. When Taguchi doesn't show up for work for several days, Kudo visits him in his apartment, where he excuses himself to commit suicide in another room. Kudo investigates and finds a computer program which appears to be an "infinity mirror" of Taguchi staring at himself in a computer monitor. Meanwhile, economics student Ryosuke logs onto a new ISP and soon finds that his computer is turning itself on and accessing some very strange websites. Toshio receives a phone call in which the dead Taguchi whispers "Help me." Toshio becomes depressed and eventually ends up disappearing into a black smudge on the wall in the room in which Taguchi hanged himself. Ryosuke enlists his friend, computer expert Harue, to investigate the strange things happening on his computer, but she can find nothing wrong. Eventually, the two story lines collide and people all over Japan start to disappear. Ryosuke and Kudo eventually end up on an apparently abandoned ship headed for South America, though even at sea, they seem unable to escape the inevitable.

Admittedly, Kairo isn't an actioner. The story unfolds at an easy pace and the mysteries build upon one another slowly. Still, director Kiyoshi Kurasawa manages to create loads of atmospheric tension. I watched this film alone, late at night and found myself desperate to see around corners, while terrified at the thought of what I might find there. There are tons of things left unexplained (For example, what's the significance of the red tape they keep finding?) and the end leaves much to be desired - something to do with the afterworld being too full to contain the souls of the dead. But the film manages to touch on tons of subjects relevant to modern anxieties, the least of which is the soullessness of modern technology and the emptiness felt by many of its users. 

By all means avoid the 2006 American remake, which is probably the most boring ghost movie ever made and which bears very little resemblance to the original.

More, anon.
Prospero