We are nearly halfway through the month and there's still plenty of fantastic horror picks we have yet to choose for you, but today is a classic! Let's just say it right out of the gate, this is easily one of the best remakes of all time and one of the scariest PG-13 movies ever.
Day 9 - The Ring
Hideo Nakata's Ringu is one of the great Japanese horror films of the late '90s. What Gore Verbinski does with his American remake is keep the same eerie and disturbing atmosphere of the original and successfully Americanize it for a completely different audience. The story of a Seattle reporter, played brilliantly by Naomi Watts, that investigates a mysterious videotape linked with several deaths contains some of the most disturbing visuals for a PG-13 film ever. The footage of the actual videotape, shot in black and white and resembling a surreal nightmare complete with bizarre footage of a ladder falling or a woman in a mirror, still terrifies with its simple and haunting nature. The Ring doesn't even have a lot of blood or gore but what makes it terrifying is the incredibly unnerving sense of dread that the film carries throughout its running time. Verbinski knows that the best way to frighten people, if you do not have an R rating, is to rely on atmosphere and effective images that will linger on the audience's imagination long after the credits roll. Verbinski still explores plenty of fascinating ideas with The Ring, like the impact of home video, isolation, family trauma, early 2000s paranoia, and a recontextualization of the urban legend myth in a way that honors Nakata's original vision by retaining the main visual language in a completely different setting. It also doesn't hurt that the image of Samara coming out of the TV is one of the most nerve-shattering and transgressive visuals of the 2000s. We didn't even talk about the fact that Brian Cox delivers an emotionally devastating supporting performance or that Hans Zimmer's score is haunting, lyrical, and absolutely terrifying.
*All of the recommendations that we make can be found at the El Paso Public Library Catalog!
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