31 Days of Horror- Day 18: Rings (2017)

(dir. F. Javier Gutierrez)

Paramount Pictures

*First-time viewing.

Samara’s back in the third Ring movie that finds a couple looking into her origins after a college experiment to find proof of the afterlife goes terribly wrong.

Gore Verbinski’s The Ring, which unbelievably came out fifteen years ago today, is one of the few stellar examples of J-horror remakes that populated the early 2000s. The cast, the atmosphere, the elevation of PG-13 horror, and its lasting nightmares made The Ring a modern horror masterpiece. While The Ring Two (2005) couldn’t capture the same electricity, there were hopes that Gutierrez’s third entry in the franchise, Rings, would breathe life back into Samara and reignite our fear of unmarked video tapes. Admittedly, the fact that Rings was originally set for a 2015 release and placed on a shelf while Paramount rescheduled the film numerous times, didn’t inspire much confidence. But Cabin in the Woods, which has risen through the ranks to be favorite amongst horror fans, also had an extended shelf-life, so there was still a chance for Rings to surprise.

The film starts out promisingly enough, with a man on a plane running away from the curse. When all the monitors on the plane switch to that infamous video, it seems we’re in for a wild ride, some kind of mix of The Ring and Final Destination. But the film jumps ahead two years and we find a college professor (Johnny Galecki) in possession of the videotape. He uses the tape to create a college experiment by getting students to volunteer to watch the video, creating “tails” so that each person’s curse will be overridden by the person who follows them. This experiment, Galecki’s Gabriel says, is to prove the existence of a soul and the soul’s need to find a new host. This stretches credibility and logic, but it at least points to a semi-interesting direction. Gutierrez clearly tries to pick up the atmosphere Verbinki created in these early scenes, replacing the wet, blue palate, with a wet, green one. For 25 minutes of so, Rings actually seems like it could be pretty decent. But then the plot takes a turn when couple Julia and Holt (Matilda Lutz and Alex Roe) determine that in order to rid themselves of the curse they have to go to the town Samara was buried and properly lay her to rest. What follows is a mind-numbingly boring exploration into Samara’s origins, with a sleepy appearance from Vincent D’Onofrio that concludes with a climax that strongly suggests someone at Paramount watched Don’t Breathe during Rings reshoots phase. Even the atmosphere that Gutierrez established in the first act disappears in flat gray palates and standard establishing shots. Rings is so boring, so devoid of emotion or even of cheap jump scares that it’s hard to believe it was backed by a $25 million budget. And it ends with a twist that’s so cheap and so contradictory to the story that preceded it that it’s laughable. Still, I’m not sure Gutierrez is solely at fault here. Usually a mess this big, was the result of too many hands and you can feel Rings being pulled in at least four different directions.

Scare Factor: 0/5 When the film can’t even make Samara’s appearance frightening, you know something’s gone wrong. I almost went with the original Ring for this entry instead of watching this, but I decided to give it a shot, unfortunately for me. You’re better off taking a nap than watching Rings.