The Devil in the Details

So before I begin, I would like to warn all of my readers out there that my copy of this film may be haunted. When I first took the plastic off of it the other day (it was brand new,) I discovered that a thin, oily substance had saturated the paper insert inside the Blu-ray case, and the back of both discs within. So, I cleaned them and made the best of it, but I find myself more than a little freaked out by this. I tried to return it to the Amazon seller that sold it to me, but wouldn't you know it: they no longer exist. Apparently, according to Google, this is actually a common occurrence: something called outgassing, and entire little communities of weirdo Blu-ray collectors out there spend their every waking moment on forums discussing the best way to combat it and how to keep their archives in the best shape possible so that they'll still be around even when their bones have long since turned to dust, but the more you know, I guess? I'm very inclined to just go with th...

After the relative disappointment that was Ringu 2, I was not looking forward to this American attempt at a sequel to Ringu. The Ring Two is technically not a remake of its Japanese sequel but that hardly matters when the story ends up going in such a similar direction. So, how does it stack up to either the original or the earlier attempts at continuing the story? Well, without giving too much away, I'll just do the internet clickbait thing and say: "The results may shock you!" But wait! I can't talk about The Ring Two yet! I forgot all about the short film Rings that's intended as a stop-gap between it and The Ring, that's usually included as a bonus feature on just about every release of the latter . Crap, let me start over. Rings, released ahead of The Ring Two, is a short film cum teaser trailer that remains something of a fan favorite amongst aficionados of this franchise. I've seen more than a few of them gushing about it on forums, fan page...

After the backlash to Ringu's first, more literary, sequel, it was up to none other than Hideo Nakata, director of the original film, to save the franchise! And wouldn't you know it, without bringing back old characters or contradicting the lore of prior movies, he just  manages to certainly gets things back on track. I mean, kind of. Set just after the events of the original film (ignoring of course everything that happened in Rasen) Ringu 2 follows Mai Takano, a young girl barely featured in the original film, as she delves into the dense and mysterious history of the curse that took the life of her university professor and boyfriend, Ryuji Takayama. Of course, it isn't long before she's put herself in mortal danger as the number of unexplained deaths among teenagers begins to climb. Can she help stop the spread of the tape before it's too late?  First of all, the good: Mai Takano is no longer played by whoever the hell botched her character so badly in Rasen, ...

Shot and released side-by-side with the original Ringu, Rasen is the 'lost' sequel that no one talks about. Well, at least, until now. You see, this film was doomed from the start. An adaptation of Koji Suzuki's Spiral, his original sequel to Ring, Rasen stuck much closer to the source material, which inevitably created serious problems when fans of Ringu showed up to see a sequel to the film they loved, yet were greeted with something almost completely alien. The situation was all the weirder considering the fact that much of the cast from the original film reprise their roles here, and that a number of details unique to Ringu ended up being brought over anyway. Add everything together, and you have a film that must have really thrown fans for a loop (no pun intended) back in its day. This must have seemed like no less than sacrilege. Needless to say, it wasn't a hit, and in the decades since its release, it has largely been forgotten by all but the most dedicated...

Spiral, the sequel so insane the movie series has (mostly) opted to ignore it entirely, is a hard book to discuss. First of all, a lot of what I said a few days ago in my Ring review would apply beautifully here. Post-modern horror with veins of sci-fi running throughout, unfettered imagination, and odd narrative decisions: it's all here. Worse still, distinguishing the two almost necessitates spoiling both novels completely, but I will try my darndest to avoid doing so. Here goes nothing... Spiral opens with our new protagonist, Ando, beginning an autopsy on a fallen character from the original story and slowly but surely becoming swallowed up in Sadako's plot to bring about the extinction of the human race. This time around plotting is far more convoluted and bizarre in general, as her viral offspring has now mutated as a result of some gobbledygook, and the tape is no more, meaning the terms and conditions of the curse are now entirely different. The new-and-improved Ring ...

Alright, so in view of the fact that this is third version of a familiar story that I'm covering here, I've decided to dispense with my usual format and just give it to you straight: comparing and contrasting this, the 2002 Gore Verbinski film, with Ringu, the original Japanese adaptation, and of course, the 1991 novel  that started it all. I realize that some might would skip those first two analyses if they were only familiar with this version, but I'll leave that to them to figure out. While I certainly wouldn't judge you for skipping the novel, Ringu is a horror film I can easily recommend to just about everybody except those too close-minded to read subtitles, and so I find that a bit more unforgivable. And needless to say, though I may have forgotten to say so last time (oops) there will be spoilers for all three versions present throughout this analysis. And so, without further ado, let's dive right in. To begin with, I want to discuss the more positive aspe...

How often do you hear fans of a book complaining that the film version takes liberties with the source material? "It was successful for a reason," they always say. "Why fix what isn't broke?" Well, without going on a tangent about how popularity doesn't necessarily equal quality, let's instead take a look at one of the more definitive examples of intelligent screenwriting that tightens and strengthens an already excellent thriller and takes it up to the next level. It turns out, editors can be a great thing. Alright, so you know the drill. I just went over most of this in my review of Suzuki's original 1991 novel, but this review would feel incomplete without a little summarizing, so here goes: when teenagers begin to die mysteriously of heart failure all around her, ace reporter Reiko Asakawa picks up the thread, which leads her to a cursed videotape that turns her entire world upside down. Now, with naught but a week to live, must find out who auth...

After discovering that four teenagers died at the same time, on the same day, in the very same unlikely manner, ace reporter Kazuyuki Asakawa smells a scoop and begins to investigate. His situation becomes dire, however, when he stumbles upon a cursed videotape and, after viewing its contents, is told he has exactly one week to live. There was an 'or else' to the threat but, unfortunately, it's been taped over, leaving him with virtually no leads and no hope of escaping his fate. He, along with a crack team of colleagues and old friends, must find out for what purpose the tape was created and complete whatever task it wants of him before his time runs out and he becomes the curse's latest victim. It's Ring, for god sake! Y'all all know the story by now, right? Besides the classic M. R. James ghost stories it's alleged to have been inspired by, Ring is largely to blame for the trend amongst young people of proliferating endless creepypasta dealing with haun...