Rings (2017) – spoiler free review
It might be hard to imagine but The Ring (2002) was a really scary film when it first came out fifteen years ago (so long ago I know – I feel old). Well it was hopelessly terrifying to me at least. Before the ‘black hair curse’ thing became popular it really touched a nerve and I found it exceptionally frightening. It’s still a fond memory in my horror film scrapbook (imaginary) and also why I had to go to the cinema and watch the long awaited (kind of) threequel.
Rings, though part of the Ring franchise is also a film for a new generation of movie goers. The story, the videotape and indeed Samara herself (who now resembles a fully grown adult man) have all been updated, though I doubt hardcore fans mind too much. I’m not sure The Ring ever had some huge following anyway, mainly due to being a dirty word in the horror movie world – remake. And though it helps to know the original story, it doesn’t matter if you don’t.
The basic premise is this – Leonard from The Big Bang Theory plays a college professor who probably shags his students. He watches the scary video and then kindly introduces it to the kids he’s responsible for in his classroom of learning – extra curricular credit I’m guessing. Matilda Lutz plays Julia, a nice young girl trying to figure out what it all means before Samara kills her and her boyfriend.
Figuring out stuff
It’s obvious that Rings has intentionally tried to mimic the atmosphere and plot of The Ring (the same score is used also). The detective-style story led by a female character digging for clues felt familiar and though we obviously never reach the dark ambiance constantly felt in The Ring (even during the safe daylight scenes) I do get that they tried (for a comprehensive list of who ‘they’ are, click here). And there wasn’t a lighthouse in this one but there was a guy in a weird old town who looked a bit like Brian Cox.
All in all Rings was fairly standard and didn’t scare me too much – though it was creepy in places and some scenes were more memorable than others and executed well. Nothing very special but it’s important to be fair and place this film in its context as a never-ever-gonna-be-anything-that-special anyway. And when you think this is a sequel of a sequel of a remake (or something like that) it was enjoyable and still better than some original, blockbuster horror films. The ending – dare I say it – was reasonable and the occasional hokey plot did make sense (enough) on reflection. For fans of The Ring this is definitely a film to watch, but can wait for DVD / Prime / Netflix .
Now, flock to the comments section at once to talk about how much better Ringu is.
Goodnight Mommy (Ich seh ich seh) (2014) – spoiler free review
I had wanted to watch this Austrian horror since I first heard about it. The premise FUCKING ROCKED. See for yourself – after their mum returns home (their very, very isolated home) from having plastic surgery, two brothers Elias and Lucas begin to suspect that behind the bandages lay an impostor – someone dangerous and scary and not their mother at all. Oh my god yes! Yes, yes, yes. Really up my alley. And even the-usually-uninformed-and-hysterical media dubbed the trailer as the “scariest ever”. Watch it here (it’s pretty scary).
And this is what the mum looks like. Pretty scary.
Especially when you’re a kid under her care, miles from anyone and not even sure it’s her. And doesn’t night time just make things worse, especially when you’re a kid. Shadows and nightmares and locked doors that your evil-might-not-be-mum has the key to. Horrid.
In the end Goodnight Mommry wasn’t quite what I expected. But that’s not a bad thing. It’s hard to review in a way because initially I felt I didn’t enjoy it as much as I’d anticipated, but on reflection it is quite an impressive film – and perhaps more so than I expected. It’s very well written (in my opinion) and the story is clever, making it an original horror that I won’t forget in a hurry.
Okay so it was less creepy than I thought it was going to be. And for me the pace felt a tad slow at times, mainly in the beginning. But that’s just because I enjoy visual scares (what can I say, I like cheap tactics) and sometimes like a big kid I just want something to happen (and occasionally feel disappointed it if doesn’t). But the tension, atmosphere and slight feeling of dread was prevalent throughout. And it’s certainly a film that keeps you thinking and guessing, whilst glued to the screen wondering what in shitting heck is going to happen next. And each tense or scary scene was so very well done anyway, mixing atmospheric terror with some really screwed up, repugnant stuff.
There isn’t a whole lot of dialogue, which isn’t a slur but did occasionally irritate me (perhaps irrationally, who knows?). And watching it as a subtitled film I suppose it did save on reading. But sometimes I was just like, say something…please. All the crazy stuff going on around them and I felt talking about it all might help a little. Not all these long, pensive, European-film-style silences.
All in all though, a very enjoyable film and nice to watch something different, both in language and feel. I was probably a bit disappointed it wasn’t as scary as I dared hope it might be but the excellent story made up for that anyway – and don’t get me wrong, there are definitely some scary arse scenes to enjoy.
emmakwall (explains it all) 
I watched The Ring when I was something like 12 years old – it was terrifying! I haven’t seen it since, because trauma. I would probably laugh it off now. Nope, I won’t.
Great reviews!
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Thank you!! And I SO feel that, it terrified me as a teen too, probably the first SUPER SCARY film I ever saw. I’ve seen it recently again and though I was able to sleep with the lights (half) off, I didn’t laugh it off either…argh!!! Lol 🙂
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I agree with you Emmy on Goodnight Mommy. I didnt love it as much as I wanted. It ran a bit too slow for me Im actually looking forward for a remake of that one and I hate English Langauge remakes I nominated you for a Mystery Blogger Award https://videovortex.wordpress.com/2017/03/05/a-triple-shot-of-mystery-blogger-awards/
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Ooh thanks so much Verny! And definitely echo your thoughts. It could have been that BIT scarier but all in all was a great story.
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I don’t do horror, generally, although the second sounds a little do-able…have been wondering about the Jordan Peele one though. I’m curious, just also chicken.
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I can be chicken too 🙂
The second one, I’d be interested to see what you think Jay! Watch it if you can 🙂
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I’ve wanted to see “Goodnight Mommy” (or “Mommry” as you called in in the second paragraph under the pic 😉 ) for a while now but LOVEFilm don’t have it. How did you see it?
Oh and Ringu > The Ring !! 😛
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It’s on amazon prime bro!! Do you have it? Get a month’s free trial if not, I think you’d really like it 😊 thanks for pointing out the typo lol lol 😁
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I did have a free trial over Xmas which I used for delivery only but not the video service.
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Do you still have the free trial?
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No. It’s only for 30 days and expired 2 months ago! 😛
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Oh yes lol doesn’t time fly 🙂
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Nice Emma, I have only seen Rings, i didn’t like the scares side of the film as well it wasn’t. but i did like the weird cult like idea that Leonard tried to create and his experiment but we didn’t see enough of it.
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*spoilers*
When Julia first walks into that room in the college with all their pictures on screens with how many days left they’ve got, at first I really thought the film was going in that direction! I was kind of glad it didn’t but agree it could have been interesting.
My favourite ‘scary scene’ was when she was in the underground room at the church!
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Insanely good reviews Emma!
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Aww, thank you so much! That’s really, really nice of you to say 🙂 made me smile!!
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I absolutely loved Goodnight Mommy.
I just recently saw The Ring (the Naomi Watts one) and I haven’t seen Ringu, so I can’t rant snobbishly about how much better it is.
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Woo! I thought it was so well written. I was watching the whole thing thinking “this BETTER have a satisfying ending” and boy did it! Without a well written ending I wouldn’t have enjoyed it so much.
The Ring might feel a bit ‘old hat’ nowadays but I still think it’s a really good horror.
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The Ring’s a bit dated, after all those J-horror remakes (The Grudge, The Eye, etc.), but it’s still pretty effective. It’s atmospheric as hell, and that part definitely holds up.
I watched Goodnight Mommy on a laptop, in the dark, at night and I almost died of fright.
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How on EARTH did you watch Goodnight Mommy in such precarious circumstances?! I watched it on a clear (for England) Saturday afternoon and still shit myself a couple of times.
Exactly my thoughts re The Ring. It is a bit dated and hard to imagine now, but v decent at the time!
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Sometimes you’ve gotta take risks.
And sometimes you make dumb choices.
I think the most unrealistic part about the new Rings movie is that people can still find a functioning VHS player in 2017. Samara’s got to make the jump to DVD. Maybe Blu-ray. I hear streaming’s the next big thing, she should move to Netflix.
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HAHA! Move to Netflix! This could seriously be our next joint post? A kind of “what would happen if…..Samara steamed on Netflix” 😀
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Sounds good to me. 😀
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Me too. I’ll email you 🙂
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surprisingly, I havent seen these two 🙂
Nice reviews Ems!
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Not surprising at all Mister I Dislike Horror 🙂 🙂 thanks Rob!
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Dislike is too tame a word
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O_O Goodnight Mommy sounds interesting.
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It’s very interesting! 🙂
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As instructed, I have flocked (?) to the comments section to immediately say how much better the original Japanese film ‘Ringu’ is. Job done. Moving on…
I like the sound of the second film a lot though. And I hadn’t heard about it either, so thanks for that, Em.
As ever, Pete. XXX
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‘to say’ 🙂 I was flocking so fast, I missed a word…
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It’s on Amazon Prime Pete (Goodnight Mommy) if you’re a member you should watch it! 🙂
xxx
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Sorry, I can’t afford it at the moment. (Not strictly true, I just don’t want to pay for it yet)…Maybe when I start getting my old age pension this month.
Then I can order a zimmer frame and a hearing aid and get them delivered the next day…
As ever, XXX
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