Although writer-director Gore Verbinski exercises smart restraint (in terms of depicting blatant horror and gore), this supernatural movie (based on the Japanese flick "Ringu") trades on a tiresomely familiar conceit: death by videotape.
Seattle reporter Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts) discovers that a number of people (including her niece) have died after watching a videotape. After they watch the spooky content – featuring a scary woman in black and white – a phone call comes. (Holy Wes Craven!) The voice on the phone tells the victim he or she has a week to live. Rachel, who watches the video and gets the phone call, traces the source of this evil to the usual deserted locales: a mountain cabin, a lonely lighthouse on an island and, finally, a remote stable. The finale, involving a well, has its creepy moments, but also its cliches.
Naomi Watts realizes too late that watching a mysterious video could be deadly in "The Ring."
(Dreamworks)
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THE RING (PG-13, 115 minutes) – Contains adult themes, disturbing images and some obscenity. Area theaters.
