"The Chase is Better than the Catch" 2003-03-09 - 4:36 a.m.

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**Disclaimer**

I watched the movie "The Ring" with Stephanie tonight, and over the course of the night it's been bothering me more and more until now I'm losing sleep over it; so I'm going to use this entry to bitch about it. The reason for the disclaimer is that this contains spoilers, so if you don't want the movie blown for you; don't read this.

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At first I loved the movie

it looked like the island was off the coast of Silent Hill or something; and it really just fucking rocked.

it came this close to being added to my favorites

the movie itself was really well done

but the ending went from: "not as good as the rest of the movie" to: "just ok" to: "pretty bad" to: "sucks" to: "ruins the whole goddamn film"

the ending itself is pretty stupid, and offers no closure

and the way the video tape ends up is almost insulting

I mean, here's this tape that "kills you if you watch it", and they make it sound so evil;

but it really just ends up being The Chain Letter (quite literally) From Hell

if you make a copy and send it on, you're fine; if not you buy it in seven days

what the fuck kinda bullshit is that?

here's the story:

[this isn't the plot of the movie; that's about the woman finding out all of this]

there's this couple in rural Washington, the Morgans; and the wife, Ann, really wants a child

but she can't have one

so her and the husband dissapear for a while, come back with Ann pregnant

they never come out and say it, but it's kind of implied that they did some kind of unholy ritual for this

the daughter, Samara[what the hell kind of name is "Samara" anyway? I mean, I'm all for unique names, but that's two letters away from "Samael", one of the names for the devil. That's just fucking asking for trouble.], is some kind of twisted freak who never sleeps(the movie is fond of reminding you of that, too)

before long the mother starts having really disturbing visions

Samara is the one giving them to her

at first the husband locks Samara in the barn;

keeps her up in the loft with some toys, a bed, and a tv set

but it doesn't stop,

so they put her in an asylum

and through some videotaped interviews, we learn that Samara is fairly psychotic and into hurting others

later the parents take her out of the asylum, and take her to a 'summer home'

the mother puts a plastic bag over her head, and then throws her down a well; sealing the top,

but it turns out Samara wasn't dead, and she slowly dies over the course of seven days at the bottom of the well

don't pity her, she's evil

and now she starts sending her mother visions from beyond the grave

until finally the mother commits suicide

eventually an inn gets set up at the spot where the Summer Home used to be; and a cabin gets put up over the well

now, regardless of wether you knew that someone had been murdered in and dumped in it; would you really build a fucking cabin over a damn well?

anyway, the tv set gets put directly over the spot where the well is

then these teenagers head to the inn for a weekend of sex and drugs away from their parents

now, the tv reception was always bad up at the inn; everyone(by which I mean the proprietor) thinks it's 'cause of the remoteness of the inn; but I'm betting it's due to Samara "The Thing That Should Not Be" Morgan being under one of the cabins

but despite the bad reception, the idiot teenagers try and record a football game anyway

I repeat: IDIOT teenagers

but what shows up on the tape isn't a scrambled football game; it's some of the "disturbing" imagery from Samara

now, the tape itself is not all that frightening

most of the imagery looks like a Tool video[and I'm even talking the newer, tamer stuff; ie-Parabola in particular. I mean, it's not even Stinkfist level disturbing.], with a few shots that would fit better in an early NIN video

anyway; after they watch it, the phone rings and a voice tells them they have seven days to live

get it?

anyway, the movie starts with One Of The Girls That Was There's last night on earth

the plot of the movie is that the girl's mother asks her sister(the girl's aunt), who is a reporter, to find out what caused her daughter's death

[the official cause of death is that her heart just stopped; but basically she was literally scared to death. And apparently being scared to death horribly disfigures your corpse. I mean, I may be ripping this movie a new one with this entry; but I have to give them "props" on the corpse make up; it was pretty scary]

and so the girl's aunt, 'Rachel' I believe, does some digging and finds out that girl and three of her friends(all the ones that went to the cabin) died on the same night, and had the exact same time of death

this leads her to the tape, and to the Morgans, and to Samara; which makes up the movie itself

all of which I'm not gonna get into, 'cause it's really well done and is still a good movie, even if the ending blows

but anyway, despite watching the video; she gets spared despite the fact that someone else she showed the video to died

[I didn't expect him to die either; I would say it was a nice surprise if I didn't like him, he was cool]

she finds out that he died and she didn't because she made a copy and showed it to him

he just watched it

she somehow realizes that it boils down to Samara's desire to "be heard", and that if you "spread the word" she won't kill you

the falling action after the climax is filled with a lot of spots that you think would be the ending, but the black keeps fading back into another scene that keeps the story going

it's really well done

at first it's like: "Ok, we get an epilogue", then it's like: "ok, I guess they're going for one more scene", and then it turns into a full blown second climax

as I said; it's amazingly well done

but the final ending is: Samara is evil, and you can't stop her, which equals No Closure

and the only thing they do is to keep passing on the tape, turning into The Chain Letter From Hell

it's really just a textbook definition of "The Chase is Better Than the Catch"

watching Rachel slowly unravel the mystery of the tape and it's origins as her seven days count down is fucking wonderful

and the cinematography and some of the effects they use are really cool

but the story that she uncovers and the ending to the movie blow

blow hard

I realize that I get really into movies, and I tend to lose sleep over ones that I really get into; but I think this is the first time that one's bothered me so much I've had to write a whole diary entry about it

if they had just stopped the movie at about any one of the false endings they had, it wouldn't've been so bad

but the ending that they did choose bites

and that's led me to lay awake in my bed for hours dissecting the background that led up to the events in the movie, and all the wierd holes and problems with that

what started as one of the better horror movies I've seen in a while

[I kept having flashbacks to Silent Hill all the while]

turned into a dissapointment of epic proportions

oh, and I should mention: It's not scary at all

there's nothing really frightening about it

what's usually scary about horror movies, say Slasher Flicks for example; is that you could be walking somewhere at night and have the killer pop out and get you

but when it comes to The Ring; as long as you don't watch the tape, you've got no problems

it's hard to be scared of a tape which pretty much just has a Tool video without the music on it

as I've said, though: it's still a good movie for the Chase part

the suspence is really wonderful

if Silent Hill without the monsters and shooting, just the mystery solving part sounds appealing to you; you'll dig this movie

the majority of the movie is good enough that you should see it even with the crappy ending; and the stuff on the video itself is pretty cool looking

especially if you like Tool videos

Sweet Dreams

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