Samara and 'Meh' Scares are Back in "Rings"

   As horror franchises go, The Ring films don't really float towards the top of the high-quality pile. I remember watching the first one (the American version) and thinking it was super creepy. It came out in the early 2000s when chain letters were still relevant, making the concept of a killer video that can be suppressed if you copy it and share it with someone else relatable. The Ring was corny, creepy, and it was nothing more than it intended to be. I don't know if I even saw the second one. If I did, then it must have been extremely forgettable. Since we live in a movie world where there are more sequels produced than original content, it's no surprise that another movie in this franchise would emerge. Rings is an updated, almost sci-fi-esque iteration of what was more of a ravaging franchise. Is it scary? Well, it has jump scares, I can tell you that much. Is it forgettable? Well...

   Rings is very much an updated version of the first film. A young woman finds herself on the receiving end of a terrifying curse that threatens to take her life in 7 days. Sound familiar? Only this time the cursed VHS has evolved into a QuickTime file. Oh, and there's a college professor who starts, like, this cult of students that watch the film in order to study it. Before their time is up, they have a 'tail', someone who will watch the film for them in order to sway the curse. It's this idea that most of the narrative jumps from. Julia (Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz) travels to her boyfriend Holt's (Alex Roe) college when he stops answering her calls and texts, only to discover that he's gotten himself involved with this weird experiment, lead by a cool version of Leonard Hofstadter named Gabriel (Johnny Galecki). In order to save him from the curse, Julia watches the video, but there's a twist. New disturbing images emerge, and a weird marking appears on her hand. Holt and Julia then attempt to investigate the evil doings of franchise baddie Samara.

   The movie is a competently made film. The acting is decent throughout. The leads do a pretty good job and capturing the dread these characters face. Vincent D'Onofrio makes an appearance in the film and he's really quite good. The movie relies on the jump scare to garnish most of it's scary moments, some of them work, some of them are just plain stupid. Cutting from a quiet moment to a really loud umbrella opening in your face is just ridiculous, but hey...whatever works right? The story isn't all that original, it feels a lot like the first film. What they do in the end is intriguing and I'm sure we'll see a follow up to this sometime in the near future. I will say though that there are a few moments that are visually really cool, and I genuinely thought "wow, that was pretty sweet." In then end, Rings is just an okay horror flick sure to entertain regardless of how dumb it is. I still had fun with it.