The hardiest of all the cinema
perennials, as its history through the 20th century demonstrates,
the horror film thrives in just about any climate or conditions. From its
beginnings in the days of the silents through the present time, it has survived
even the shocking, very real horrors of a turbulent history: world wars,
genocide, famine, disease, the prolonged threat of thermonuclear apocalypse.
Somehow the imagined menace flickering on the great screen in the close and
palpable darkness of the theater overwhelms the actual dangers that exist in
the purportedly knowable daylight world we all inhabit.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย The
form long ago reached a stage of high development, imitating itself both
specifically and generally, producing the endless progeny of Dracula and
Frankenstein, the litters of werewolves, whole museums of mummies, and, more
recently, months of Fridays, a year
of Halloweens, and more Nightmares than anyone ever dreamed.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย The
latest horror flick, The Ring,
suggests both the infinitely reduplicative capacity of the genre and its
tendency to trim its sails to the prevailing winds of the Zeitgeist. The movie, in a sense, copies itself, while also
providing something like a compendium of contemporary horror, with elements
from a number of popular films, ranging from Videodrome to The Sixth Sense.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Opening
with two teenage girls watching a horror flick on television, The Ring consciously refers to numerous
examples of its genre, beginning with the sort of urban legend that propels
several recent movies. Horror, of course, naturally involves sex, so one of the
girls hints about her illicit weekend with a boyfriend and another couple. She
then tells her friend about subsequently seeing a videotape showing a series of
strange, apparently unrelated images, that inspired a general dread. After the
four young people watched the tape, the telephone rang and a voice informed
them that they would die in seven days. This is now, of course, the seventh
day.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Though
her friend dismisses the whole story as a fabrication, in fact, the girl dies
horribly and inexplicably that night, and her listener loses her sanity. The
sequence suggests another one of those dead-teenager movies, in which young
people suffer hideous punishment for their sexuality, but the real scares have
only just begun.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Rachel
Keller (Naomi Watts), a reporter for a Seattle newspaper and an aunt of the
dead girl (who used to take care of her 6-year-old son, Aidan), discovers that
the three other youngsters who saw the video have all died, which naturally
impels her to investigate the mystery. Unfortunately, she also watches the tape
and receives the same admonitory telephone call, which provides even greater
motivation to solve the puzzle. She enlists the aid of her child’s father, Noah
(Martin Henderson), an ex-boyfriend who works with electronics. Keller also
pores over old newspaper clippings, and painstakingly attempts to figure out
the origin, location, and meaning of the scratchy, jumpy, black-and-white tape.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย The
tape’s odd, unsettling images — a woman in a mirror, a ladder leaning against
a wall, a seascape with dead horses (right out of Dali), a face at a window, a
stone well, a lighthouse, and so on — engender an eerie and puzzling dread
for no apparent reason. As Rachel proceeds with her detective work, the various
items gradually accrue meaning and develop a history involving a wealthy couple
who raised horses, their adopted child, and a suicide. The search into the past
leads her to the various locations discernible in the tape — in particular, a
decaying farmhouse and a spooky motel of the Bates variety, where the movie
reaches a peculiar, explosive climax.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย The Ring’s use of documents, videotape,
television, and the processes of recovering information from poorly made
electronic records provides a richly detailed and generally fascinating
foundation for its preposterous and ultimately meaningless premise. The familiar
and observable world of technology establishes some context for the
supernatural and unknowable world beyond.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Along
with the more or less intellectual and rational engagement of the investigative
methods, which could very well appear in a detective thriller, the film also
generates an extraordinary — and, essentially, unjustified — terror from
its manipulation of the ordinary. In keeping with the techniques of
contemporary horror, the camera holds endlessly in tight close-up on some
humble object — a doorknob, a water faucet, a chair — drawing out the
suspense and investing them all with a perhaps undeserved potential for dread.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย Aside
from the teen-pic opening sequence, the movie also suggests another aspect of
the youth-oriented horror flick: the ambiguous vision of the child as both
victim and villain, with some overtones of the uncanny psychic ability of the
kid in The Sixth Sense. While perhaps
preaching a sermon on the dangers of too much television, especially for the
young, The Ring recalls the
malevolent TV sets of pictures as different as Videodrome and Poltergeist.
The killer television must represent one of the important fatal instruments of
our age.
ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย The
film’s greatest flaw derives from a failure of its own internal logic. No
matter how silly or objectionable or even incredible, cinematic horror demands
some reason for its existence, a coherent rationale to explain just why some
character suffers some terrible fate. Despite the obvious competence of its
filmmakers — almost every shot displays an overwhelmingly oppressive
atmosphere and, consequently, engenders an immense foreboding — The Ring, for all its scariness, just
doesn’t make enough sense. Oddly enough, horror needs more than fright to succeed.
The
Ring,
starring Naomi Watts, Martin Henderson, Brian Cox, David Dorfman, Daveigh
Chase, Lindsay Frost, Amber Tamblyn, Rachel Bella; based on the novel The Ring by Koji Suzuki and on the
motion picture The Ring; screenplay
by Ehren Kruger; directed by Gore Verbinski. Cinemark Tinseltown; Loews
Webster; Regal Culver Ridge; Regal Eastview; Regal Henrietta.
This article appears in Oct 23-29, 2002.
