Barnes & Noble

A truly blood-chilling exercise in supernatural horror, this American remake of Hideo Nakata's 1998 Japanese cult classic depicts the inexplicable marriage of demonic malevolence and modern technology. The nightmarish tale gets underway as newspaper reporter Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts) investigates the bizarre fates of teenagers who have died exactly seven days after watching a certain videotape. Rachel watches the tape and pooh-poohs the idea that it might be cursed -- until her young son (David Dorfman) starts making eerie drawings similar to those produced by the victims just days before they died. Despite the occasional plot hole -- suspension of disbelief is a given in horror, anyway -- screenwriter Ehren Kruger crafts a spine-tingling story that is visualized splendidly by director Gore Verbinski, who establishes a sinister, melancholy mood early on and sustains it through the excruciatingly tense final reel. This isn't really an actor's movie, but Watts handles herself surprisingly well, making believable that which is patently unbelievable. She gets able support from Brian Cox (playing a lonely old man whose past sins have a bearing on the present carnage) and Martin Henderson, who is extremely winning as the video geek who helps Rachel analyze the deadly tape. This ambitious little thriller isn't always logical, but it's relentlessly creepy, and that's a quality you always want in a horror movie. Ed Hulse

All Movie Guide

A disturbing videotape appears to hold the power of life and death over those who view it in this offbeat thriller. A strange videotape begins making the rounds in a town in the Pacific Northwest; it is full of bizarre and haunting images, and after watching it, many viewers receive a telephone call in which they are warned they will die in seven days. A handful of teenagers who watched the tape while spending a weekend at a cabin in the mountains scoff at the threat, but as predicted, they all die suddenly on the same night. Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts), the aunt of one of the ill-fated teens, is a journalist who has decided to investigate the matter and travels West with her young son, Aidan (David Dorfman), a troubled child who has been drawing pictures of strange and ominous visions. Rachel managed to find the cabin in the woods and watches the video herself; afterward, she receives the same phone call, and realizes she must solve the puzzle of the video and the person or persons behind it within a week. Rachel turns to her ex, Noah (Martin Henderson), an expert in video technology, who at first is convinced the story is a hoax until he digs deeper into the mystery. The Ring was adapted from a 1996 Japanese film by Hideo Nakata, which became a massive box-office success in Asia and spawned two sequels. Mark Deming

Product Details

• UPC: 678149040333
• Source: DREAMWORKS VIDEO
• Time: 1:49:00

This DVD is also available as part of a box set:

• Ring / in Dreams
• Ring Collector's Set
• Ring Collector's Set
• Ring Collector's Set