REVIEW: Rings Give a New Take on The Horror Franchise
The thing with horror franchise is… first and foremost if the first one was a huge hit, the followings are usually a letdown that do not live up to its debut. “The Ring” is one of the horror franchise that has a new sequel movie released this year called “Rings”. How does it fare compared to the first one? Or even the original “The Ring” that hails from Japan? We had a chance to watch the movie first and we would give you a glimpse of what “Rings” could offer. The Ring stories center around an urban legend about a cursed VHS tape, that if someone watches it, and receives a mysterious phone call afterwards, that person will be dead or missing. In the remake version of The Ring that was released in 2002, the vengeful spirit of Samara Morgan haunts those who watch the VHS. With the same concept, in the sequel, director F. Javier Gutiérrez tried to modernize the curse concept to follow the latest technology’s trend.
Since it’s 2017, it’s common that the trend of VHS has died down. It means that during the course of fifteen years, Samara hasn’t killed anybody since no one watches the cursed video tapes. So it’s only fair that the story begins with a vintage enthusiast and a biology professor named Gabriel (Johnny Galecki) finds the cursed cassette tape in a garage sale. After watching the video, he receives a cryptic phone call from a girl who whispers “seven days”. As a scientist, initially he does not believe that the urban legend is true. He wants to prove it by digitizing the video tape and let his pupils watch them. The curse is soon passed on to Gabriel’s pupils and the grand plan is to assign another person so the curse will be passed on without Samara having to take any victim. But, the plan fails as soon as those 7 first pupils experience hallucination, and delirium with the figure of Samara keeps haunting them everywhere.
One of those pupils named Holt (Alex Roe), has a girlfriend named Julia (Matilda Lutz) who’s still in high school. Holt who faces the phase of hallucination after watching the tape is missing and Julia is worried about him. She traces his whereabouts through his college mate, Sky (who happens to watch the tape as well). Julia then also watches the video, but when she watches it, something different happens. Up to this point, until the end the plot is pretty much predictable. Galecki’s portrayal of Gabriel is pictured as someone who’s too obsessed with the story of Samara Morgan. At one point you could not help but despise his attitude, however you also could sympathize with him. Compared to its predecessor, “Rings” as the sequel falls short to our expectation. “The Ring” was able to bring the horror and terror from Samara to those who watches. The plot is not strong enough in this one, but if you’re an avid fan of “The Ring” you might like it. “Rings” is shown during midnight since 18 February 2017, and will be available widely starting from 22 February 2017. This movie is not for the chickens!
Reporter: Audy Prasetya/Editor: Novita Widia
