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I watched a movie: Rings

I was able to see an early screening of Rings last night, here are my thoughts with as few spoilers as possible. I re-watched The Ring 1 and 2 in preparation for this movie (didn't have enough time to watch the Japanese originals, although I did see The Ring 3D) and realized that because I didn't really like the first movie, I never even bothered to watch the second. My feelings having re-watched are similarly blah, it's kind of an interesting concept, but as horror movies they aren't very scary or interesting. The movies are filled with so much research (where did the tape come from? who is this girl? what happened to her?) that it can be quite slow besides the beginning and end of the movies. So I was hoping that since they decided to make another sequel, they would choose to make the movie more fun (as a horror movie should be) at the same time...

They did it! Rings is fun, scary, and true to the original movies all at the same time. David Loucka, Jacob Aaron Estes (the writers) and everyone else involved, really made an effort to make this film truly scary. Also, as a fan of Asian horror, I can say this movie is very true to that genre as well being supernaturally scary as well as true life scary (people are more scary to me than ghosts ever will be). There's even a fun twist at the end, those of us who remember the first movies might guess but it's still a good scene. I'm not too strict about those pesky things called "plot holes" but there could have been some additional explanation at parts particularly in relation to the professor. All in all, I really liked this movie more than the The Ring 1 and 2. It's worth the watch. I'd give this movie a 7 out of 10. Although I found it weird that the leads were supposedly a couple fresh out of high school (with one just starting college) yet they acted and looked much older, and never once did they think to call their parents (nor did the parents call them) to ask for help.

My photo of the movie screen as we waited. Camera couldn't capture the "real" Samara on account of how dark it was but she was just like the one on screen. Spooky!

Since this was a special early screening, there was an in-house Samara walking around the theater which totally added to the creep factor. I kept thinking she might crawl up to me in the darkness during the movie, OMG. Anyway, to get you in the Rings spirit, below are the Trailer and a video store prank that is hilariously scary. The movie is in theaters everywhere tonight, February 3, let me know how you like it if you see it.