RINGS
US, 2017, 107 minutes, Colour.
Matilda Lutz, Alex Roe, Johnny Galecki, Vincent D'Onofrio, Amy Teegarden.
Directed by F. Javier Gutierrez.
The producers of Rings seem to be under the impression that audiences all over the world cannot get enough of the Ring stories. It is not Lord of the Rings – but, rather those phone calls that audiences became aware of in the late 1990s in the Japanese horror film, Ring and its sequel, then to American versions soon afterwards.
In case there are some in the audience who are not familiar with the ghostly video, featuring the emergence of a young girl and her sinister behaviour and look, which, when anyone watches it, they get an immediate phone call telling them that they will be dead in seven days, there is a prologue. We see a young man in a plane, explaining his situation to some young women, his telling them that his seven days were up, his fears, his bleeding nose, hiding in the toilet – but the plane then (perhaps limiting the screening of this film as an in-flight feature) goes into crash mode.
Now that we’re all familiar, more or less, it’s time to take the story further. Not that the sinister video is not seen in whole or in part many times throughout this film – and we live to tell the tale or write a review. By now, a university lecturer (John Galecki) who tinkers with technology, has seen the film, has not died, but has obviously made copies and passed them on. He has also begun a course at the University, enlisting the participation of students who see the film, make a copy and pass it on, and so survive – and, in case there are difficulties, he finds “tails� to protect the student or to become the next victim, not to die but to make a copy and pass it on…
In the meantime we have been introduced to Holt and Julia (Alex Roe and Matilda Lutz), a couple in love, he going off to the University and admiring the professor and becoming part of his program. While Julia is mystified, a young woman comes onto her computer screen screaming about Holt, which certainly disturbs Julia enough that she gets into her car and drives to the University, going to a lecture, confronting the lecturer, following him to his laboratory and rather shocked at what she finds. But she is even more shocked when she goes to the young woman’s apartment and finds herself locked in a room while Skye realises that her seven days are up and, no matter what plugs she pulls or what screens she smashes, the sinister Samara emerges and Skye dies, it looks like from fright.
At this stage, Rings does seem rather familiar but then it takes a turn and moves towards the development. Julia is no frightened heroine. Rather, she decides to watch the film, save Holt, but starts her own investigations as to what was behind the film. She then has several visions, about Samara, and visions of her pregnant mother. Julia is a young woman of initiative, tracking down locations, finding Samara’s grave (with some rather terrifying moments when she is locked inside, a feeling of her being buried alive), tracking down a church, retired blind man (Vincent D’Onofrio) who reassures her.
But she’s also told about a priest in the town, now retired, who seems to have taken on a woman and made her pregnant…
So, anyone interested in finding out what the consequences of this are (and there are a few shocks and frights), it is necessary to see the film.
Some fans have complained that it is not enough of a horror film – it does have some scary jump out of your seat moments but, on the whole, this is a film about Julia solving the mystery of Samara. And, just to be sure, the makers have set up situations where one might expect a sequel, or sequels.
1. The popularity of the Ring story? The Japanese origins and treatment? American versions? This film and its development?
2. The remake aspects? The development aspects?
3. Introduction on the plane, the young man, having watched the film, giving information to the women, seven days left, in the toilet, his blood, the plane crashing? Familiarising the audience with the basic film and Samara’s presence, black and white, sinister?
4. Two years later, Seattle and Washington State? Gabriel, his shop, inheriting the video, fixing it, the film inside, seeing it, exploring the reality, the existence of a soul, conducting his course, the experiment and the rooms, the individuals, the issue of their being protected and having tails, to watch the film but make a copy of it and hand it on? The distorted photos of the people on the wall?
5. The relationship between Holt and Julia, their personalities, his going away to study? The phone contacts? The friends dragging him away from the phone, Julia later encountering them and their hostility? The intervention of Skye, on the phone, upsetting Julia, her travelling to the University?
6. Gabriel and his lecture, his interaction with Julia, not answering her questions, her following him to the lab, Holt and his warning, the discovery of the situation?
7. The encounter with Skye, at her apartment, the film coming to life again, her inability to stop it, her death?
8. Holt, involved in the experiment, rescuing Julia? Julia loving Holt and watching the film, not making a copy?
9. Her beginning the investigation, the range of her visions, Samara and her story, her mother, the pregnant woman?
10. The crash, the pregnant woman, Gabriel and his death, the explosion? The book, the illustrations, the background history? The photos?
11. Holt and Julia visiting the cemetery, finding the grave, Julia going inside, being trapped and the moments of being buried alive, Samara, the well, Holt getting her out?
12. The discussions with the woman in the town, the information about the mother, the priest?
13. The visit to the church, finding the house, the encounter with Burke, his blindness, talking and explanations?
14. The realisation that Burke was the priest, confronting him in the house, his confession, as a priest, wanting to father a child who would save the world, Julia exploring the house, finding the basement, the scratches on the wall where the mother, Evelyn, was interned? Going upstairs, bashing down the wall, finding Samara’s corpse?, Holt to the rescue, Burke and his death? The burying of Samara?
15. The theme of Samara, her soul inhabiting someone else? Holt and Julia happy? Julia inhabited – and the possibility of more sequels?
