Reviewed by Julian James

When Dreamworks announced in early 2002 that they were working on a remake of the internationally popular Japanese horror movie Ringu, the reaction was, to say the least not positive. Given Hollywood’s track record of screwing up remakes, especially in the horror genre, there was good reason for this uproar. But when The Ring was finally released in theaters, just about all of the nay sayers were left silent. Can it be that Dreamworks actually made an excellent remake that’s, dare I say it, better than the original? Apparently it can. Yet, despite the movie’s success, Dreamworks has decided to skimp on the special features. It’s still a cool disc, but it could have been a whole lot cooler.

The Ring doesn’t deviate too much from it’s predecessor's main story elements. A deadly videotape pops up that mysteriously kills it’s viewers seven days after they watch it. After her niece is killed by this tape, Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts), a newspaper reporter, launches her own investigation and thus just so happens to watch the tape herself. Now with time running out, Rachel must solve the mystery of the deadly videotape before her seven days are up.

This movie makes me a believer. First of all, it restores my belief in a good scary movie with a PG-13 rating. Not since The Sixth Sense has a movie with a below R rating been this effective in scaring an audience. Second of all, The Ring changes my beliefs about Hollywood remakes, at least for now. Not only is it just flat out a good movie, but the Ring is actually able to surpass its predecessor in terms of scares and atmosphere. Last but certainly not least, this movie really makes me think that there is hope in mainstream Hollywood horror movies. With the recent crap coming out like Ghost Ship and Fear dot com, I was beginning to loose faith. I truly hope that The Ring is a sign of things to come for the horror movie genre.

The video and audio quality on this DVD are absolutely excellent and, just like the Ringu DVD, is the best reason to pick it up. The video presented is absolutely stunning and has got to be the best anamorphic, non Superbit, transfer I have ever seen. All of the dark scenes look great and the colors are jaw-dropingly sharp. Also impressive is the audio. Dreamworks has given us a 5.1 and a DTS track, both are quite good. The spoken dialogue is crystal and the bass is just enough to give you a nice on-edge feeling throughout the film.

The only real special features presented on this DVD is a short film created by the film’s director Gore Verbinski and the ability to view the contents of the dreaded videotape. The short film runs for about 15 minutes and includes some interesting stuff, the best of which is an alternate ending taking place in a video store. Also included is trailers for the original Ringu and some of Dreamworks other movies.

Overall we’ve got an excellent horror movie with a great audio/video transfer and almost no special features. Sure, it’s cool that we get a chance to see a few deleted scenes, but you think that for a movie that made over $120 million in the box-office, Dreamworks would at least throw in a featurette or some of the interviews off of their website. If it weren’t for the awesome transfer, I would say forget it. Instead, it’s all gonna have to come down to what you thought of the film. Did ya like it? Great. Pick this puppy up. Didn’t like it? Bummer. Guess you’ll just have to pass on it. Didn’t see it? Get your butt down to the nearest video store as quickly as you can.

Official Website:
http://www.Dreamworks.com