Jon Winkler – The Ring (2002)
When I was in third grade, The Ring was like an urban legend amongst kids my age. Everyday in the lunchroom, I heard my friends whisper and gossip about this movie and, more importantly, if “the tape” was real.
“GUYS IT’S REAL! My brother’s friend’s girlfriend’s cousin saw it a week ago…and, like, no one has heard from him.”
“I heard it’s being banned from theatres because everyone who saw it DIED!”
“I heard it’s scarier than everything ever made!”
“I kinda wanna get another pizza.”
Ok, so that last one was just a frequent thing I would say at lunch (who wouldn’t though, am I right?), but The Ring was hyped up beyond belief when I was a lad. I actually didn’t see the movie until a year or so later on HBO….and ho boy, it freaked me out. The creepy imagery, the uncomfortable atmosphere and Naomi Watts’ performance of sheer horror was something I thought was created by the devil himself. And of course, there’s the scene where Samara is finally seen crawling out of TV, which still sends shivers down my spine to this day. Perhaps it’s because my experience with horror movies at the time were the later installments of Nightmare on Elm Street and Child’s Play (which were honestly more comedic than scary), but The Ring was something that I had never seen before. It seemed like it wasn’t meant to be enjoyable, just to make you smash all tapes and televisions near by.
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