Many people whenever they're being asked, "What's your favourite horror movie?" and they would tell many great list of best horror movies on history, while I'm going to simply answer, "The Ring America remake."
I know that's lame.
I watched the America remake first then the original Japanese version. Well, the Japanese version plot was so absurd and I hard to digest, at that time like I was still young. Well, now, the only Japanese version I like is Ringu 0. The first time I watched Ringu 0, it had same reaction as while I watched the other Japanese versions, but it was the only version I couldn't get it and kept watching it until now I'm totally get it. *Well, that's my thing. I'm curious with my own preference of films. It's like my head could see how good is a film but when I saw it first time I was disappointed. But then my heart told me to keep see it and suddenly I found the why.*
Rings (2017) was not as same as special feature short story Rings (2005) as precursor to The Ring Two. The film started with the first victim on the film was on the plane named Carter who chatted with one of passenger and told the story about this cursed video he had watched seven days ago. Then after that we knew his rest of fate. Later, Carter's father, Gabriel who also had watched the video tape, had college student named Holt. Somehow Holt also had watched the video and later his girlfriend, Julia. They learn the truth about the tape and try to pass it onto others to avoid having Samara come after them, but along the journey, Julia got visions of something else and that's the new twist story about this sequel.
Outcome: Rings ripped off things from The Grudge. #yikes.
I did try to understand this plot since it's The Ring America remake universe and the way video is spreading now digitally. But, it's simply lazy written. There's nothing scary about this film even the case except we'll just have to wait if someone's going to die. I mean, the material of spreading the video by internet/digital file is so promising but the film is executed like a sequel of paranormal activity. Now, I'm trying to examine this new story plot of Samara in this film and how the franchise is now on jeopardy.
As I put above, the story ripped off from the Grudge.
In the Grudge, or Ju-On sequel, Kayako later decided to possess a woman who got an accident and she thought she was miscarried but she wasn't. The accident is caused by Kayako. The cool thing about The Grudge/Ju-On film, it has setback story-plot. So, we might got mixed-up in the middle of film and confused but somehow we would understand about everything at end. So, Kayako is reborn in the final. I mean, that's made sense. Why? For me, if you followed her character, people who entered her house will automatically be cursed and Kayako will come to kill them. Then, the Kayako's house has same interpretation as reincarnation process of spirits. It was not be mention but I just made a conclusion from all the activities of all Kayako victims after they entered the house and Kayako ghost chased them. Kayako was not just killing them but same as Sadako, she haunted them and gave horrible visions. But, the timing of them to be murdered by her were random, and by all that means the time the victim enters the house, the victim mostly is possibly already dead. Why? Because every time we got someone entered the house, the person would find a way to get away from Kayako's chasing but whenever they'll meet their final hour, they'll come back to the first time they entered the house. THAT'S MIND BLOWN.
Kayako is a real powerful ghost. She's a ghost by the way. She's a daughter of woman shaman who cast away bad spirits from her patients and locked them to her own daughter. She was a nice person and just odd, until she married a wrong man and obsessed to another man. Her fault was to love. *Okay, that's sad*. Then, her husband got jealous and killed her, their son, and a black cat. Later the husband also followed them with committed a suicide (but not inside of the house, he died in phone-booth). Kayako actually could be exactly like Sadako in Ringu 0. Well, she was. Before she died, her only wish was to save her own son but by the time she arrived crawling from second floor of her house through the stairs and end up almost in front of the bathroom, she found her husband already drowned their son in the bath. From there, her husband saw she's still alive and he yanked her head and at that time she promised she would keep living and her hate on her pitiful life became the grudge for this world.
On The Ring's case, based on the novel, Sadako did possess nensha (psychic photography), and it was hinted that she had prenatural senses, clairvoyance, and mind control abilities. This is nothing compared to the Sadako in the films, who is tremendously powerful beyond all limits. Aside from nensha and clairvoyance, the Sadako from the movies possesses ultra-psychokinetic powers, teleportation, remote vision and travel, regenerative powers, healing abilities (used by the Good Sadako only), and even the ability to cheat death, in a way. Incidentally, Sadako from the books cannot kill people by simply willing it like film Sadako can. Book Sadako can evidently manipulate the Ring Virus at will, and psychically infect anyone she chooses.
The true villain of the books is not Sadako herself, it is the Ring Virus, which was created when Sadako's dying will and psychic powers were fused with the smallpox virus. The smallpox virus mutated into a conscious virus capable of spreading via psychic means. In the film, it is Sadako's vengeful shade that is wreaking havoc although it is worth noting that in the book the virus was born from a fusion of Sadako's hate towards society, her psychic abilities and the smallpox virus, despite it not being Sadako herself who causes people to die.
The cursed videotape remains a constant fixture in the Ring film franchise, while in the books, the curse evolves into other formats: from the tape, to the Ring Report, to the Sadako clones, to the Ring novel published by Asakawa's brother, and ends with the Metastatic Human Cancer Virus.
*Well... they're all straight from the wikipedia. I mean I didn't read the novel, I just knowledge the whole facts from the novel and how movies adapted them*
[from here, spoilers ahead]
Rings by the way... was like Sadako 3D story line. In Sadako 3D, a hacker who became Sadako's puppet spread a link which consisted Sadako's video virus. Somehow there's a girl who knew how to up against Sadako's virus and she finally beat the ghost. Then, I didn't follow the next sequels, just cut to the chase, in Sadako vs Kayako, our Sadako became more like Sadako in book where she can infect anyone she chooses. Now, in the end of Rings, we found Julia's computer like attacked by virus and many email windows opened to send Samara's video tape link, so our Samara has now free to move and can manipulate the internet to spread her video, like a virus.
Yet, the plot in Rings was just exactly like The Ring Two, it added nothing but repetition of incidents that happened with Rachel in The Ring and The Ring Two personally. If you watched Rings (2005) which a short story of two young teenagers in the beginning of The Ring Two, it was lots of fun and haunting than this Rings.
So, maybe I am too pretentious and sensitive with the rebirth issue since this film put several times of idea pregnancy as the tool of Samara be rebirth. Because we found the end of this film, rebirth can mean Julia became Samara. Her skins coming off and as she looked into the mirror, her reflection became Samara. It was exactly what happened at the end of The Grudge America version. But, I still can accept The Grudge plot, because there's a ritual that made Kayako's ghost to be locked into the child's body, exactly like what happened to Kayako when she was young. That could happen. We just never know and that's why I said this Ring franchise is now on jeopardy.
On The Ring Two, Aidan was possessed by Samara and maybe what happened with Julia at end could be just like Aidan. In Ringu, it's like a tv movie, Sadako was rebirth and became one of her victim, the real victim's body found inside a water tower and forensic results reported the victim died because she's on childbirth where she wasn't pregnant. *Now, I became too deep, where this Rings movie was not even that deep*. Well, it all could matched but one thing I really up against was the truth they added Samara's biological father.
It was too forced writing. If we came back to the end of The Ring Two, Rachel closed the well so Samara couldn't get out once and for all since she wanted to have her own mother figure from Rachel since only Rachel could understand her, that's why she possessed Aidan. There's a good intentions came out from The Ring and The Ring Two, then the twist was the idea of why the curse couldn't stop. And, the answer is the origin of Samara herself, which we learned in The Ring Two, Evelyn was pregnant 8 months when she suddenly showed up at a convent. In Rings, there's a blind priest named Burke, believed to be Burke's father and kept Samara bones at his house. I was like torn apart to find that truth. In The Ring Two, Rachel met Evelyn and Evelyn directly asked Rachel to kill her own son because Evelyn believed Samara was evil. (Back to up when I mentioned about Kayako was ghost by the way, not Samara. Samara was supposed to be evil. In the Ringu 0, we knew Sadako had two personalities and both were powerful, but no matter what the power came from evil. Sadako's father locked the evil Sadako up the attic of their house, that's how Sadako could live her life as normal person. Yet, at the end the good Sadako was too weak and she let the dark Sadako returned and controlled her).
I had no idea where that idea of Burke became Samara's father came from. In the novel, Samara's real father was came from the sea, like somehow the original mother mistakenly disrespect a god and threw the statue to the sea. Later she found herself pregnant and that's how Sadako be called evil. It was also be mentioned in Ringu 0. In The Ring Two, there's no intention of film to reveal Samara's real father since Evelyn already called her as evil. Rings wanted to explain that storyline but it was so poor and too quick. There must be something bigger than just a human father, blind, and priest (this is too easy).
Surely, Samara's adopted father was way more clever. He did blame everything that happened with his wife, his barn, and things on the island because of Samara.He up against her since beginning, he's the one who straight sent her to mental hospital. He did something, he became cruel because of his experiences. Well, in Rings, Burke attacking Julia, yes, but all this time he kept Samara bones and he didn't get haunted, even he got killed by Samara. What kind of nonsense conclusion was that?
In The Ringu 0, Sadako's father poisoned her and somehow Sadako survived and her father chased her until they're near the old well. Her father smashed her with crescent blade and she fell deep under the well. Her father did something to stop his beloved daughter do more evils. But here, Burke was such a very weak character and so random, came out from nowhere and no correlation with The Ring Two facts. The fact that Evelyn, Samara's real mother believed she was conceived by evil. Well, in the original story, there's one character who had intention and also brought an issue of "RAPE". We actually can just point out that there's a possibility Evelyn was a rape's victim. I mean if we want to connect facts from Evelyn in The Ring Two and Burke's title as a priest, this could mean maybe at one time Burke was possessed by demon and raped Evelyn. *Well everything about raping always evil, so it is really matched*. Also, Samara could kill Burke which means Burke was not the real real father of Samara. We also can just presume that Sadako is mutant, like Charles Xavier.*And now, imagine Professor Xavier died literally like Sadako and haunted us all, lol... wait Sadako literally Phoenix, don't you guys think so? lol*
But, there's no deep meaning of all Julia visions about pregnant woman. None except just to make everyone sure that Samara had intention to rebirth, as what Evelyn and Aidan said, "Don't let the dead out." But we all know Julia and Holt were fooled and burned the bones to ashes, hoping to release the ghost out of misery but they has risen her from dead.
I mean they could do more further writing than just repeat all the actions from the past films. Why not, Julia and Holt reached Rachel and Aidan? This film messed the timeline, so bad. Maybe Naomi Watts didn't want to return, also David Dorfman, yet at least they could make a side-plot where they look for them and tried. Rachel was a journalist and reporter, her name must be known since she's the one who discovered the well with Noah, she's the one who being exposed because of this case. On her time, her relatives and friends died, I mean it happened in 2005 and now is 2017, rather than put another extra features on the video, and by the way Samara never knew anything about her father. She hates her one and only father, the one who killed himself electrocuted in the bath. See, there, Rings literally re-do things that already happened from past. Like Gabriel died because he got electrocuted, too. I thought Gabriel could be the odd character in the film who actually could encounter Samara face-to-face since his position was exactly like Rachel where his son being taken. Gabriel's perspective could get more further but they killed him and let these two stupid lovebirds messed everything through the end.
There's no sign Rings won't get any sequel. It's Hollywood, by the way.
I'm so bumped. Rings (2017) is not good... so not good that it was just meaningless bridge, if they would like to make any sequel to the outbreak of Real Ringu.
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