‘Rings’ Offers Initial Promise, Fails To Reignite The Franchise | Film Review

It irritates me when I hear people talk about any form of media that falls under the horror genre and their immediate response is “That wasn’t even scary.” It always comes across as extremely condescending to me (one of my pet peeves), as if certain people walk into movies with an “impress me” mentality because they’re so calloused to fear. It’s bothers me mostly because I actually want to be scared in horror films and tend to walk into them with an open mind, ready to squirm in my seat and feel as uncomfortable as possible.

Since 2002’s “The Ring” succeeded in making me the most freaked out I can ever remember while being in a theater, I was looking very forward to checking out the latest movie in the Samara Morgan universe, F. Javier Guierrez’ “Rings”. When I walked out of the theater this time, I found myself having the same reaction as those same people I’ve despised over the years. Despite my desire to do so, I simply wasn’t even mildly freaked out. I’m officially one of “those” guys, and it’s bothering me.

Here’s the thing: the movie starts out with a lot of promise. I realize that it has to be difficult to follow up a movie that is so centered on a mystery, but I have to admit that I was impressed with the setup. “Rings” takes place in a world where more people are aware of the cursed VHS tape that summons a dead girl who kills you in seven days unless you follow a certain set of rules. Julia’s (Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz) boyfriend, Holt (Alex Roe), is off to his first year of college, leaving Julia back home to only have communication with him over Skype. When Holt starts ignoring calls and Julia starts receiving creepy messages from a stranger, she takes it upon herself to investigate. She meets one of Holt’s professors (Johnny Galecki) and learns that he is conducting research based on Samara’s tape, using his students as subjects, including Holt himself. Julia involves herself and conducts her own research to unravel a new mystery regarding Samara’s past.

From that point on, the plot heads into somewhat of a downward spiral. Julia spends the majority of the film’s runtime stumbling upon some of the most random coincidences I’ve seen in a long time. Seriously, for a young woman, she has detective skills that would make Sherlock Holmes roll his eyes in disbelief. If that’s not enough, the ending tries way too hard to pull off the surprise of the original film, and it feels incredibly forced.

Lutz and Roe as the leads are serviceable, but give a presence that comes across as going through the motions. I never really felt like either was convincing me of their fear of the situation. I was more impressed with Galecki’s out-side-the box role as the five o’clock shadow sporting man on a mission. He proves he can do more than an awkward geek, and his showing here really makes me wish that he would branch out even more. Vincent D’onofrio makes an appearance as a blind man who supplies Julia and Holt with some much-needed clues, but honestly, he feels more distracting than entertaining.

“Rings” is more of a let down than an actual terrible movie. To be fair, it had a lot to live up to, and it probably was about as good as it could have been. Lightning rarely strikes the same spot twice, and this is sadly one of those cases. The first act gave me hope that I was really going to enjoy my time, but it focused too hard on trying to recapture the magic of the original with a new story arc that barely works. Some stories should just quit while they’re ahead instead of making 102 minutes feel like seven days.