Hacker Cinema
The Ring
2002 · Film · 115 min
Directed by Gore Verbinski
Journalist Rachel Keller investigates a strange videotape that may be behind the untimely deaths of four teenagers. There is an urban legend about this tape: the viewer will die seven days after watching it. Rachel tracks down the video... and watches it. Now she has just seven days to unravel the mystery of the Ring in order to save herself and her son.
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8 comments on Hacker News
I find this plot structure tired and boring so I'm always on the lookout for movies that don't follow it. They are hard to find! (Also, I probably don't have an excellent memory to recall them later when I do find them.)
Horror movies in general seem to have more freedom to play with plot structure than other genres. Every film, regardless of plot, needs to have something that makes the audience want to watch to the end of the film. With horror, it's often putting the question in the audience's mind "what is happening?" That can be compelling enough to propel the viewer to the end so the film often doesn't need to have a protagonist go through some emotional journey.
It's been a while since I've seen them, but I don't think The Ring or The Grudge follow this plot form. It's probably telling that both of those are adaptations of non-Western films. I don't think Alien follows this structure either: Ridley is basically right all along and just has to survive.
I think Goon is an underrated comedy, and it doesn't really fit the three-act structure well. It certainly has conflict and climax, but Doug doesn't really go through any internal crisis. Instead, he's more often the catalyst for internal change in other characters.
I once rode a bus from Boston to NYC in the middle of a winter storm at night. The bus got lost and the trip ended up taking close to 7 hours. These buses had TVs for showing video tapes, and so partway through, the driver decided to show “The Ring”. Let me tell you, an involuntary horror movie screening in the middle of a blizzard is quite a memorable experience.
There are horror movies based on analog electronics (e.g. The Ring using TV, VHS and telephone). Rarely seen one using digital electronics , I only know Jigoku Shoujo. Will be waiting for AI based horrors.
One of the movies that let my hair stand up was EVENT HORIZON - thrilling setting and playing with ones fears of the "hell". Conjuring is also thrilling, with very little scenes that let your bloud freeze.
Beside that, Japanese THE GRUDGE and THE RING are very psychoactive for me, with very little jump scare, but with a lot of long black hair - since that movies I have fear of long black hair :)
Thank you for opening this topic to discussion. I'm looking forward to hear what other fellows say.
Its seems that Minority Report was in the can from July 2001 though you could imagine the amount of post-production required for that movie which would lead to it being released almost a year later. Catch Me If You Can was filmed between February and May 2002 to be released on December 25th. It seems like a busy year but doable,
Spielberg only stepped in to direct after Gore Verbinski dropped out because the film was delayed due to DiCaprio working on Gangs of New York. Verbinski's original casting had James Gandolfini as Hanratty and Ed Harris as Frank Sr. Verbinski ended up doing The Ring instead. Its amazing how much of Hollywood production is a string of almosts and conflicting schedules.
It Follows, along with a handful of others (The Strangers, the Ring, the first Paranormal Activity), was the first well done horror movie I've seen since the BWP. I guess it comes down to what scares you personally. For me, it is much more about the atmosphere that the movie creates, that often borders on weird and uncomfortable, and human. Of course, the Shining is also a great example of this. The slow slip into insanity in a grand, isolated hotel in a blizzard does way more to evoke that weird feeling that lingers after the movie ends.
It confuses that so many directors keep pushing the same style of horror movie out, when they consistently get poor reviews. Are all directors scared by the same exact themes?
I watched The Ring once and must have left the TV on, because later that night I woke up to a light coming from the living room. I went in and the TV was doing the "white noise / static" thing exactly like in the movie.
I turned it off, unplugged it from the wall and thought, "ok, if that happens again I can officially shit myself."
Koji Suzuki's 'Ring' series - the novels on which the horror movies were based - has a very interesting slant on this idea; well worth reading. (Don't be misled by the movies: the second and third books in the trilogy are excellent speculative fiction!)