Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

I am a couple of days late on my write off submission. This has just been a super hectic week and I am now nearly 7 months pregnant, and it seems that it is taking me twice as long to do just about every thing. So I apologize for being so late. The Halloween Night write off is sponsored by Sleeper54. Here is the link to the write off http://www.epinions.com/content_3550126212. Simply put the write off was to write about something scary or Halloween related.

Ranting (Feel Free To Skip Ahead to the Review)

My first choice for this write off was Nightmare on Elm Street 2, but as I was watching the DVD it apparently had a scratch in the in it, and clicked off, write before the pool scene, so I was not able to watch the whole movie. Then I was going to do a review on a children’s book about a pumpkin after reading it to my kids. This was a book recommended by another Epnioner so I bought it and couldn’t wait to read it to my kids, but they some how managed to get a hold of it, and I have no idea where they put it. Now that leaves me high, dry, and desperate and needing something to write about. I have not seen very many scary movies lately but I did see one over the summer. Unfortunately the one I saw was The Ring, which already has 175 reviews to its credit. Normally I don’t like review things that have already been reviewed many times but out of desperation, and because I am late, I am forcing myself to review this movie. So hear goes review number 176 on the Ring.

Why Did I View This Movie?

We were on vacation on South Padre Island, the day was very hot, and we didn’t really feel like doing anything out in the heat that day. So we decided to rent a couple of movies and bring them back to the condo we were renting. The video store is a little on the small side, but adequate for a vacation area. My husband sees a movie every Friday night with his friends so we had to find something that he hadn’t seen yet that was also agreeable to me. The only movie in the store we could both agree on was The Ring. The other movie we chose was a family movie that the entire family could watch.

The Plot

Yet another modern day movie that is all about Urban Legends. Is it just me or is this concept a bit played out? Well the Urban Legend of this movie surfaces around a video tape. Supposedly if you view this video tape, you will get a phone call after you watch it telling you that you will die in 7 days. The first scene of the movie demonstrates that this is not merely a legend but the truth. Two girls having a sleep over are discussing the video and the one tells the other about the video and says that she watched it, and look it is the 7th day and she is not dead. Moments later she is.

Naomi Watts plays the aunt of the victim Rachael. Rachael just happens to be a reporter and her sister, the girl’s mother wants her to investigate the death of her daughter. Naturally being a reporter all of her instincts start to kick in and she dives in to the case searching for answers. She doesn’t have to search to far to find out about the tape. At the reception after the funeral service she over hears two teenage girls talking about the tape, after a bit of persuasion she is able to find out where her niece had gotten a hold of the tape and where she had watched it. Obviously not all that scared she rents a room in the very cabin her niece viewed it in, and obtains easily the same video tape, she then of course watches it. The tape itself is a bunch of random images that at first don’t make a whole lot of sense but as the movie pieces along you begin to understand most of it. Needless to say after she views the tape she gets the phone call telling her she has 7 days to live.

Now Rachael is not a greedy girl, she decides that she would like to share her fate of death with her X-boyfriend (Noah) and has him view the tape as well. Wasn’t that sweet of her? She had no problem doing that, but when her son gets a hold of the tape and views it she starts to take the whole death thing seriously.

Rachael and Noah are determined to get to the bottom of the mystery of the video. And Rachael gets completely absorbed in finding out the origin of the video. Her son Aiden also seems to have some sort of strange connection to the video. He draws pictures that are related to the video and he seems to be connected some how to the maker of the video. All of this is very strange along with what Rachael finds out about the video. She gets her self in some to close for comfort situations, she thinks she has everything solved and then it turns out to not be what she thought at all.

There is a lot more of this movie. There are many scenes and it is pretty well thought out. But guess what I shall tell you no more. If you want to find out who lives, and who dies and if the mystery of the video is found you will just have to watch the movie.

My Thoughts

I found the movie entertaining enough. I find that many of today’s movies that are meant to be scary are just simply stupid. This one at least had some good content to it and an interesting story line. It also has a really good twist that keeps you guessing just a bit. I also found that the main character is a bit more intelligent than a lot of the characters in these so called scary movies. Of course she does stupid things it wouldn’t be a scary movie if she didn’t but over all she was pretty bright. The story itself is kind of stupid, but the involvement with witch it was played out made it a decent movie. The end of the movie I have to say was kind of simplistic and stupid but for the most part it was an interesting movie.

Well the most important question to be answered about this movie is of course, was it scary? For the most part not really, the first scene made an attempt but it was pretty much a typical teenage horror film murder scene. If you find them scary and not redundant than I guess this was a scary scene. For the most part the movie did not scare me, but there were a few scenes that freaked me out a little bit, and one scene that was very scary, so I have to give it props for that one scene.

Recommendation
Would I recommend this movie? I would have to say yes. It is not the scariest movie I have ever seen, but it does have its moments and one particularly scary one. The story line is interesting enough that it holds your attention; you also get a surprise which is always nice.

The acting is also pretty decent for this kind of movie, and the main character is engaging and bright. As I said before the story line, is not that interesting but the movie is done with great detail and you really get into the history of the video tape, and the story unfolds in a manner that it complete for the most part. I don’t want to give the movie 4 starts because I don’t think it was quite 4 star material but I would give it a solid 3 ½. This was a good movie to watch on video or DVD but I would not have paid the 7 or 8 dollars to see it at the movie theater.

I think the special affects are for the most part pretty good. There was one point of the movie where I actually got the heebie jeebies, so I would say they have to be pretty realistic to have that affect.

Don’t let your kids watch this one. It could be very scary for them.

Thank You and Other Entrants

Thank you Sleeper54 for sponsoring this fun and spooky write off. Please take a few moments to read the other entrants in this scary write off. The submission list is quite long so I will just once again provide the link to Sleeper54’s write off page where all of the reviews and reviewers are listed, and the list is being kept up to date. http://www.epinions.com/content_3550126212

Here is a link to review of a nice book to read kids after Halloween:

http://www.epinions.com/content_45220531844

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age