The Ring

Directed by Gore Verbinski, The Ring follows Naomi Watts’ Rachel Keller as she begins looking into the mysterious origins of a videotape that essentially kills the viewer seven days after it’s been watched. Filmmaker Verbinski, armed with Ehren Kruger’s screenplay, does a superb job of immediately drawing the viewer into the deliberately-paced proceedings, as The Ring kicks off with a terrific (and thoroughly suspenseful) pre-credits sequence focused on the videotape-related demise of Rachel’s niece (Amber Tamblyn’s Katie) – with the movie, beyond that point, seguing into a hit-and-miss midsection focused, somewhat oppressively, on the central character’s far-from-enthralling investigation into the homicidal apparition’s tragic past. And although the picture’s been suffused with a handful of misguided sequences, including a run-in with an out-of-control horse that’s less disturbing and more unpleasant, The Ring‘s proliferation of positive attributes, including Watts’ sterling performance and Bojan Bazelli’s often strikingly ominous visuals, ensure that it remains watchable throughout its admittedly overlong running time – which, when coupled with a surprising and engaging climactic stretch, cements the picture’s place as an erratic yet mostly stirring horror effort that remains a cut above its similarly-themed brethren.

**1/2 out of ****