Ring 2

[Scarface]

The 'hand from the grave' scene in Carrie certainly made me jump in the cinema. So much so I grabbed the top of my girlfriends leg in terror!

An ex of mine had her hand on top of mine when watching Cast Away and sunk her long nails into my knuckles when he gashes his leg on the coral. To anyone sitting around us it would have looked like I had really slow reactions to what was happening on screen!

 

[Lokki 7]

Cheers LB. The Audition and The Eye are now on order, can't wait.

Oh, and the American Ring is a much better film than the original. FACT

 

[Schrödinger's Toad]

Thought Ring 2 last night was really pants to be honest, vast periods of incredible boredom with the odd shock. The end was ok, but it really was a disappointment.

 

[ben andrews' girlfriend]

I chickened out

 

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

I've tried to stay out of this thread, but i just can't...

The Japanese Ring IS better than the American one, if only because Sadoko is much scarier than the American girl. The American ring is also a very good movie.

Japanese Ring 2 is a little dull, and, as TLB said, Ring O is turgid.

Easy 10, if you're going to watch Audition, prepare yourself a stomach of Iron. It's f***ed. Really, really twisted and disturbing. Whatever you do don't skim read the blurb on the box, see the gorgeous girl on the cover and think 'Great! she might get naked.' That attitude will in no way prepare you for what is to come...

And if you like strange movies, try Ichi the Killer. It's by the same director i think.

 

[Easy 10]

Well, Audition certainly has enough recommendations. Cheers GNLF, I'll deffo look out for it. I've NEVER seen it around on either network TV or Sky, and Blockbuster don't stock it either. I'll have a look in HMV or get it off Amazon or something.

Sickness and gore doesn't overly bother me, but I do like being disturbed.

 

[m20gull]

Audition - top film and very disturbing

Ring - both US and Japanese are good. I prefer the Japanese because I find its "foreignness" makes it slghtly more scary.

Ring 2 and Ring 0 - both OK, slightly prefer the latter

I will give the Eye another chance on LB's say so. Only got half way through last time but wasn't in the mood.

Ichi the Killer - superb entertainment but not very shocking

LB - let us know about the Spiral. Reviews aren't great but might be interested.

 

[SK1NT]

watched it at the cinema friday night! it was pretty dissapointing to be fair. The only thing about the film that made me jump was when the gang of girls behind me kept screaming.

 

[The Laughing Bluebird]

LB - let us know about the Spiral. Reviews aren't great but might be interested.

The Spiral: well, I'm afraid the reviews were right. It's not a good film. It's based on Koji Suzuki's book Spiral, which was his follow-up to Ring. I read Spiral last week, and even though it was pretty poor I'm glad I had read it before I saw the film, because I wouldn't have understood it at all otherwise.

Suzuki goes off on a totally different track from Ring with Spiral, and this follow-up to the original Japenese film does likewise. The result is a very confused effort that's fairly boring in truth. And it doesn't have a single moment that is anything even close to scary (although, in fairness, it doesn't attempt to scare the audience either). It defintely isn't a horror movie.

A couple of the actors from the original Ring play the exact same roles in Spiral, and a bit of Ring footage is used in flashback sequences, but this film doesn't have any of the same menacing atmosphere that Ring has.

Suzuki's original Ring book is a pretty good read, and both the Japanese and American Ring films are great, but the two Japanese follow-ups are poor in my opinion. Unfortunately, Spiral (both book and film) is worse still. I just hope the American Ring 2 is more entertaining.

The Korean version of Ring, entitled The Ring Virus, has just been released over here. That is a pretty low-budget affair, and it's not very good (far from it to be honest), but it's far more faithful to Suzuki's book than either the Japanese or American versions.

I bought a Korean import of The Ring Virus a while back. The English subtitles were woeful, but I assume they will have sorted that out for the British release. I certainly couldn't recommend the film, but it does throw in a few interesting elements from the book that the other versions chose to leave out, such as the fact that Sadako was a hermaphrodite who was violently raped before being thrown down the well. No wonder 'she' was so angry!

The Eye: I really enjoyed this film. A sort of Thai version of the Sixth Sense, and it has a couple of really jumpy moments. No out and out horror, and the ending is a bit corny, but I thought it was a good effort all the same. Word of warning though: avoid The Eye 2 at all costs. Although it's beautifully put together, it's not a proper sequel and it's rubbish.