The Ring

An excellent horror, just the behavior of the characters at the beginning was a little strange. Verbinski layers up atmosphere, combining unpleasant chill with several very effective shockers. The investigation into the origin of the video tape drives the story nicely forward and several scenes are wonderfully surreal - the horse on the ferry, falling into the well, Samara’s emergence. Very good. (03/24/2013)

Though The Ring doesn’t come up with anything new in the context of clichés and the screenplay has some lapses in logic, it is so brilliantly made that it can only be praised. It’s a razor-sharp horror flick with bleak cinematography, a terrifying soundtrack, a perfectly cast little boy and, mainly, the beautiful, natural and spontaneous Naomi Watts. (04/06/2003)

There are some excellent scenes, and a few compositionally clever shots, but after it finished I told myself “Is that it?”. I don't know what it was that didn't work, but I just wasn't scared, which is a pretty serious problem with horror. The Ring just fizzled through my head. I have quite a problem with remakes of Japanese horror movies. (03/02/2003)

Genre-wise, it's one of the best psychological horror films of the decade, a very successful remake of the original Japanese version, which is stylistically more appealing but less digestible for the Euroamerican viewer. In terms of gradually building atmosphere, it is very well executed both in terms of direction and screenplay. Overall impression, 90%. (01/12/2008)

A remarkable thing. The Japanese original is probably a completely different film, but Gore Verbinski managed to capture a brilliant atmosphere in his remake, he succeeded in several nice compositions and visually excellent scenes. Traditionally, a ton of attention is drawn to the exceptional Naomi Watts, who has been in her best acting form in the past decade. (02/09/2014)