This week saw the Blu-ray release of Rings, the long delayed sequel to one of my favorite horror properties about a cursed videotape that kills the viewer after seven days. It’s been almost 16 years since the J-Horror boom saw US mulitiplexes flooded with localizations of some of the best in Japanese horror. Hoping to replace their yearly Paranormal Activity offering Paramount was banking on the title, which was unceremoniously dumped in February to be a new beginning while still continuing the continuity set forth thus far. Contrary to what you probably heard or read however, Rings was a surprisingly engrossing update to the series that for fans is worthy of your time.
Taking place 13 years after the events of the Ring 2, Rings opens with a great what-if as a passenger aboard a flight to Seattle hits his seven days mark while mid flight. The film then breaks to sometime later as college professor Gabriel Brown (Johnny Galecki) buys a VCR containing the tape that belonged to the doomed passenger. Its then the machinations of this film are swung into motion as we then jump yet again to Julia (Matilda Lutz) whose boyfriend Holt Anthony (Alex Roe) is about to head off to college when you begin to get a pretty good idea where this film is heading.
After a disturbing call from one of Holt’s female classmates, Julia heads up to see what’s going on with her MIA boyfriend, only to happen upon “The Sevens”. The cult-like group led by professor Gabriel are using the now digitized tape to experience the reality bending hallucinations that come with Samara Morgan’s cursed video only without any of the risk. Once someone watches the video they are then assigned a “Tail” who’s responsible to watching the tape and removing the curse before the seven-day deadline. The problem comes Holt loses his “Tail” and Julia views the video to save his life, but is unable to make a copy to save herself. The computer instead errors out spitting out a corrupted file that is larger than the original.
Upon viewing the file they find that it is imbued with more scenes and clues that send Julia on a search for what happened to Samara’s mother to hopefully save her own life.
The film was F. Javier Gutiérrez’s follow-up to the surprisingly effective Before the Fall a film about a planet-killing meteorite that was way better than it had any right to be. Rings pulls a bit from the Japanese reboot for its story this time around updating the technology, while still sending our protagonists down the requisite rabbit hole to unlock yet more secrets about the cursed girl’s origins. For having sat unreleased for two years Rings was an effective return to form for the franchise that still packed in the scares. The film felt like Gutiérrez had channeled the Japanese pacing for his take on the story that finally felt to me like they got the mixture of dread and discovery just right.
While still playing by the established rules, Rings still manages to do something different, adding a new twist to the mythology thanks to Julia’s self sacrifice. This is echoed throughout the story thanks to Matilda Lutz (Julia) who gives us a sympathetic heroine whose only fatal flaw is her naïve romanticism as she follows the clues left by Samara in the video. When she arrives at her destination in the film’s final moments, it thankfully took the premise into a much different direction that I was originally expecting. The film’s original ending as intended is also included on the disc and shows a slightly different outcome lacking the punch of what ended up on screen.
Rings also comes with 25 minutes of deleted footage, including a few featurettes that discuss the US Ring series and a piece on the make-up effects that brought Samara to life. While interesting, I would have loved a director’s commentary to shed some more light on how the film developed and changed from the original cut and the one that eventually hit theaters given the footage presented. For those looking for a refresher course the Blu-ray even comes with the first two films as HD downloads as a bonus, which is great considering the first film is currently out of print and the second film was never released on Blu-ray.
I was probably one of the few folks that saw this film theatrically and I was pleased with the presentation contained on the disc. The film looked great and sounded even better. Rings was shot digitally and the transfer here looks crisp with amazing detail. For the sound the film has an impressive DTS-HD 7.1 track that begs to be played loud. The aggressive sound mix here really amps up the scares and keeps the listener on the edge of the seat for some of the more tense moments.
Rings brings Samara into our digital world and I can’t wait to see what they do with this franchise next. Strange enough the film did well at the box office given Paramount’s lack of faith, so we might just get another sequel if this title also does well on home video. Paramount has put together a great package with not only the first film, but including the two previous films so those new to the series can also catch up. For those on the fence Rings is definitely worth a watch for its viral take on the urban legend that only gets more terrifying the more accessible technology becomes.
