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The Ring (2002)
43 Plays1 month ago
This podcast was found in a cabin outside of Bellingham, WA....please do not be alarmed when Trav and Rick crawl out of your smartphone all wet and icky within seven days of listening to this epsiode.
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Transcript
Listener Numbers and Podcast Intro
00:00:50
Speaker
We're here. We're back. We've been gone for a bit. Yeah, we took our... Do you think anyone missed us? Off. mean, we're getting about, i guess I'm fine sure, we're getting 50 to 60 listeners now per episode. Okay.
00:01:06
Speaker
I want to know how we're doing in the Philippines. listeners are ours. Yes, we we apparently have a presence internationally, not not just here. we were ranked 151 on the Philippines. Is it their TV slash film?
00:01:18
Speaker
category. We're not there anymore. I checked, Trav. We're not ranking in Philippines, so we need to give some, we need to give some of the Philippines some love. Yeah, we dropped with taking the week off, but again, prioritizing some personal time and for vacation for the fourth. So with that, this is the Sunday Scaries. I'm Travis Telerik. Wait, was that our banter?
00:01:39
Speaker
That was, well, we can have more banter, but at some point we need do the intro. That's true. I thought we'd do the intro after the banter. I had more banter. Oh, okay. Banter away. If we do, we can do the intro and then you're saying we can do more more banter after? Banter away. Banter away. We can do the intro after. just felt like that's a nice transition.
00:01:58
Speaker
I can't do my banter unless you ask me how I'm doing though. How hard are you doing, Rick?
Rick's Lost Passport and Kenneth Branagh's Rejection
00:02:03
Speaker
I'm not doing too great, but I'm not trying to bring that energy to this podcast, Travis. So I appreciate you asking me, but ah lost my passport.
00:02:12
Speaker
Oh, And I'm going to visit Ilse. When this video drops or when this podcast drops, i will I'm leaving from Mexico in three days after that. And I need my passport to enter that country.
00:02:27
Speaker
And I called the passport office today. And the earliest they can find me an appointment, July 16th. That is the day I leave for Mexico. So I have an 8.30 a.m. appointment and I leave at 9 p.m. And they're going they say, try to do a same day printing of the passport.
00:02:43
Speaker
you You know, there's companies that will expedite it for you. You have to pay more. But I've had friends do that and get about 48 hours turnaround on a new passport. I think that's who I talked to today because I realized halfway through the call how helpful this gentleman was. I was like, this cannot be the federal government I'm talking to.
00:03:01
Speaker
i i fortunately have not lost a passport before, but I do know a few friends who've but in that situation and usually they can get even quicker. Turn around not lost. It's, I just can't find it. Okay. But that is, that is a big oof.
00:03:14
Speaker
Other sad news. Ken Branagh is now gone from my life. um He didn't say no to doing a podcast with us. It wasn't an affirmative. Yes. But learned on one of my many drives with him. He's a huge fan of the substance, which is your favorite film from our favorite horror film, at least from last year. Yep. um So good news there for us, Trav.
00:03:36
Speaker
um we have some film news. um I was really, really, and I don't like playing the game of, you know anytime a publication does a list of best movies of this, best movies that, I try to stay out of the discourse of like, hey, you didn't put this in.
Discussion on New York Times' Greatest Movies List
00:03:51
Speaker
You didn't put that in because like it's all subjective. I'm just glad that there's a company paying and individuals to put together a list of movies so we can talk about it like we're doing this pod.
00:04:02
Speaker
So I want to say first and foremost, I was thrilled with the format, the look, the rollout of the New York Times ah greatest movies of the 21st century.
00:04:13
Speaker
Top 100 films of the last 25 years. Correct, yeah. the Top 100. And this wasn't just a small editorial staff doing this. They pulled and interviewed like hundreds of not just critics, but also academics and artists.
00:04:29
Speaker
um And I just love... i mean, they took their time with this. I mean, if you have the New York Times app, they have little GIFs for each image. And you know like if you look at movie stuff like as much as you and I do, Travis, you start to see the same stock photos... Not stock photos, but like marketing photos and stills and it's like i saw new scenes and i saw new gifts but i wanted to say bring that up a great job new york times go check it out it even has like a checkbox list if you want to like mark the ones you haven't seen um there's two lists they did one for the critics and academics as i mentioned artists they're also a ah reader list which i voted in
00:05:06
Speaker
I did as well. um you We are proud readers. So I wanted to ask, so Trav, this may be less of a guessing game because if you were as plugged in as I was on this, you probably already know the answer to this question, but maybe our listeners don't.
00:05:19
Speaker
Do you know how many horror films were in the main list, the main 100 list? Oh, very few. um I forget the exact, I remember Black Swan was on there and then maybe two others. i think there's three or four total.
00:05:33
Speaker
There's three. um Black Swan is number 81. Let the Right One In, the Swedish film, vampire film, is number 70. And number eight is Get Out.
00:05:47
Speaker
Oh, yes. And Get Out was there, too. I sure. Pretty strong. Yeah. Now, I like all three of those. i think they're deserving. I candidly think there's a few other films that. Well, I'm glad you said that because because the readers, they were looking out for you, Trav.
00:06:03
Speaker
So ah they also had Get Out at 16. They had um Black Swan at 72. So it bumped up a bit there. There are three additional films from two filmmakers, ah young upstarts who are shaking up the game.
00:06:21
Speaker
We got Midsommar. Yeah, Midsommar, Hereditary, and The Witch. where those Would those be the three? Or is Lighthouse one of them? I guess think there's three of those four, if I had to guess.
00:06:32
Speaker
Yes, it was The Lighthouse, Get Out, Hereditary, Black Swan, and Midsommar. Yeah, that makes sense. Long way of saying horror was represented in these lists, not as much as we want it to be, but they were at least Uh,
00:06:47
Speaker
ah I did want your take on hereditary's placement. It was actually in the extended list. don't know if you saw that, but for the a hundred list, they actually included 400 additional movies. So technically your beloved hereditary is 108 on the main list.
00:07:03
Speaker
Oh, so it just missed the cut. It just missed the cut. Yeah. It was almost there. And then, yeah. Yeah. I mean, we'll cover at some point, but pretty open. If you follow me on letterboxd, I, I believe letter, uh,
00:07:15
Speaker
I believe hereditary is not just the best horror film of the past 25 years, but to me, I think it's the best horror film of all time. So I'm a huge, uh, Astor junkie. i I love everything he's putting out. So maybe I'm biased a bit, but I also understand that horror, especially with critical consensus, right. Is not as well received as when you actually go to the people in the fan. So I think that's,
00:07:40
Speaker
to be expected that it just missed the cut and maybe well the delight i i think it by the industry and the fans like it more. Here's the thing though that's changing because it's an encouraging sign that when you look at the crop of, you know, most powerful directors under the age of 50, you ah You can't mention that list without mentioning Aster, Peel, and Eggers. And now you have the substance coming in, getting the best picture nom.
00:08:08
Speaker
Sinners is likely going to get a best picture. Now, I just think that in terms of the set, that overlap between ah critical and, you know, fan fan loving movies were we have better days ahead.
00:08:22
Speaker
Yeah. um
The Ring: Introduction and Audience Engagement
00:08:23
Speaker
This is the Sunday scaries. I'm Travis Telerik. I'm Ricky Townsend. Thank you guys for joining us again. um Yeah, so we audibled off of Megan 2.0.
00:08:33
Speaker
Today we are instead covering The Ring, 2002 remake of the Japanese film that came out in 98, Ringu, believe. i believe And that was also an adaptation of 1991 novel by Koji Suzuki. And yes, Hideo Nakata made the Japanese film.
00:08:52
Speaker
But we are covering the U.S. s film directed by Gore Verbinski that came out in 2002. um Before we jump into that, we are... you know, aspiring to connect with our fans here. So we do have somewhat of a social media presence. And Rick, you know this better than me. so maybe you can fill everyone in on the details.
00:09:14
Speaker
Right. We're starting simple. ah We just want to direct people to our Instagram for now. That is the Sunday scaries dot pod. And we want engagement, even if if it's hate mail.
00:09:26
Speaker
Throw us a fuck you. Say your list sucks or that graphic you posted has pixelated. and Um, Even if you're not friendly, we will be. So follow us there.
00:09:38
Speaker
So synopsis of The Ring is, a journalist must investigate a mysterious videotape which seems to cause the death of anyone one week to the day after they view it.
Experiences and Impact of Watching 'The Ring'
00:09:50
Speaker
um I will just say straight out of the gate, wasn't like nervous about watching this, but definitely... It was a bit daunting because have long maintained, long maintained. If somebody was asking me, what's the scariest movie experience you've ever had? Not, not what's the scariest movie. Okay.
00:10:10
Speaker
But scariest movie experience, which really places you in a time and a location. And without a doubt, without a doubt, I would always say the ring. Um, we'll get into the the first time I watched it later.
00:10:23
Speaker
but, but memorable experience stayed with me for days, could not sleep. Uh, the jump scares, the sick feeling. So it had a lot to live up to now. I'm not 12 anymore.
00:10:36
Speaker
So I approached that viewing with that lens. Cause I seen it probably only once or twice since then. That's how scary it was for me. And it is a really solid movie.
00:10:46
Speaker
And yes I really enjoyed it. It looks great. um But I thought it was really phenomenal. I thought it just it just it landed for me in a really great way.
00:10:57
Speaker
Yeah, i I'm right there with you. I mean, i believe our teenage years especially are very formative. And this was a PG-13 film when it came out. So as scary as it is, it's still only PG-13. Barely. You know that they had to hack away at this thing. It was R initially. And at the last second, they're like, we have...
00:11:17
Speaker
we think what could be a major hit, but we got to make it PG 13. That, that would make sense then because this was one of the scariest films and scariest PG 13 films for sure.
00:11:28
Speaker
And because that I watched it as a young teenager. And so when it's so formative, it's so impressionable. I was terrified by this movie. I'd probably put in my two scariest movies of all time for the first viewing.
00:11:41
Speaker
Yes. That's a good distinction. And then a few years later, it was The Descent, which came out, which hopefully we could cover on a later episode. i have a question. And I can already tell that we were talking about it, how we feel about the movie.
00:11:55
Speaker
It feels less ubiquitous than it should be or it feels like it's very it's very located within our generation you don't see a lot of gen z rediscovering this and i don't see a lot of like gen x or um you know older generations i like picking this up and being like that's a good like i just honestly i when i talk about the ring i find that i'm mainly having that conversation with people around the same age as me it Samara is iconic.
00:12:26
Speaker
Samara is iconic as ah as a villain. But i I almost see her mentioned and shown in like horror ah imagery during Halloween more than I hear people talk about the movie.
00:12:37
Speaker
yeah what are your what What are your thoughts on that? Yeah, i I think this movie is truly a time capsule and that when I think of it, I think of my first experience watching it 20 years ago.
00:12:47
Speaker
The movie focuses on you know, VHS tape and watching it on these big box TVs. And so it, it takes you back to the turn of the century when I'm sure this is part of what you wanted to get into when technology was so rapidly changing.
00:13:01
Speaker
And this is really at the end point for the, for the old guard of technology with the way we watched films. It hasn't been revived as much as other horror films that are older, but still, I think have a second life after that.
00:13:15
Speaker
Well, what's interesting about Revive is that um its predecessor, the original text, the Ringu by Nakata, that film is known for reviving the Japanese ghost story genre called Kaidan.
00:13:31
Speaker
And so really prevalent in like up until around the 60s or 70s, because ah eighty s and 90s was much more like shock horror. um well flashers too lot too. Exactly. lot of Yeah, good call. A lot of slashers, especially in Japan.
00:13:47
Speaker
um So what Ringu did is it brought back that slow-paced rhythm. You have ah murky waters and usually a girl, a young girl is the ghost. and so but So that revives a genre that had been kind of dormant in Japan.
00:14:06
Speaker
But what I think, and now this is what people say, a lot of critics that I like have said this, because I still have not seen Nakata's Ringu, and I really want to see it. But everything I've heard is that Ringu is less scary. It's more of a straightforward mystery with horror elements to it.
00:14:22
Speaker
It doesn't really have a visual palette that is like striking. It's got great performances, and it like is true to to the book. But that what the ring does is like it takes all the...
00:14:33
Speaker
fears that are under the surface in that original movie and like just goes full bore and going back to the peak 13 decision, it worked out for them because it made $249 million dollars yeah domestically, which at the time was the highest grossing horror remake of all time, only to be beat by your boy, uh, Stephen King's it in 2017. So,
00:14:55
Speaker
So it made that in today's money, that'd be 446 million, which would still be more than what its money would be now, which is 418. um So this kicked off a huge J horror craze in both countries.
00:15:08
Speaker
ah the Grudge, Pulse, all that. Darkwater. Dark water. And as well I bring this up to go back to like, because those other films weren't as successful and no one, no other films really hit like this one did. I wonder if the ring gets um grouped up with J horror and maybe some people have certain feelings about that. Like ah American remakes of J horror, I should say.
00:15:31
Speaker
I saw the grudge. um It's fine. It's good. It's still scary movie. Like, yeah, I think I might even have it in my top one 50 list for, for, my favorite scary movies, but it's way further down the list than The Ring is.
00:15:45
Speaker
um The Ring is much more iconic to me. So do you remember where were you in the theater when you watched? you said you were a teenager. No, I was a teenager. I i must have watched it within a year or two of it coming. I remember it was either like eighth grade or freshman year or high school, which would have put me in like 2003, 2004. So shortly after its release to VHS tapes or then we were starting to get DVDs. I think I did watch it on DVD.
00:16:11
Speaker
Now, did you watch the video, like the actual ring video tonight? You watched that tonight, right? Yes. Yes. If you were a teenager, you were a little older than me when I saw it, because I was like actually scared. Like I actually thought that there might be something fucky going on with the phones and stuff.
00:16:30
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, I was definitely afraid of telephone calls. We still had a landline at that time. which again is kind of going back to that time capsule point about this movie. And so when the phone would ring, especially late night phone calls,
00:16:43
Speaker
i I think it raised a new sense of terror with like, why are we getting a call right now? Who is it? um So I don't know. was necessarily all specifics of this film, but it did raise my fear of that a bit. This movie is very interested in two pieces of technology, which are like just not used anymore. And that's landline phones and VHS.
00:17:04
Speaker
VHS was already on the way out. um But landline phones are a thing here. And now it's, you know, that's not a thing. yeah Yeah, this is my first time revisiting it as well in over 20 years. But like you said, I'm glad I did I was worried that growing older and watching a lot more horror films since watching this one, I would be a bit jaded and not enjoy it as much, but it's still still really hits. It's still really scary as well.
00:17:32
Speaker
Even in my 35 year old adult self, like there is moments where I'm truly covering my eyes and the ears. um Even though I've seen it before, I know generally what's going to happen. and Do you want to go into that? Some of those scary moments or do you want to do production notes? let's Let's do production notes first. I did want to talk a bit more about the point you mentioned. This was a huge box office success.
00:17:53
Speaker
It's not. Oh, shit. What the fuck is this? Did you? Oh, I watched the video too. Oh God. Um, hello.
00:18:11
Speaker
Welcome to the pod, my childhood best friend, William Evangelatos. Hello, William. Hello, hello. You're flesh. So you don't just have the distinction of talking about The Ring, which I cannot wait to reminisce with you about our time seeing it together.
00:18:29
Speaker
You are our first guess first guest on the show. You're a first call-in guest, Will. Call again. This is huge. This is huge. Wow. um What's, ah ah way to just make me super nervous.
00:18:45
Speaker
if Yeah, sorry. i didn't right I didn't mean to. I'm going first guest to blow it, too. All right, let's do it. Here's the thing about podcasts, Will, is that if you say something dumb or, if it's dumb and entertaining, we'll keep it in.
00:18:56
Speaker
But if it's dumb it doesn't make sense, we can always cut it cut it out. You know, we're not live. We can do whatever. Oh, I get it. Well, the whole thing's to be cut. Yeah. Well, dude, ah we haven't spoke in like probably close to a year. So we have other stuff we've got to catch up on off the pod.
00:19:11
Speaker
But as you know, i I told you, I texted you before that this pod started. And I was like, dude, I cannot watch this movie without thinking of not just the moment of watching this with you in the theater, but the days after. And we didn't even.
00:19:25
Speaker
And so like I wanted to give you the floor. And like from your perspective, can you tell me just highlights of that first time watching it because it's it's something that stuck with me for a long time oh yeah that was a terrifying movie um of like the decade for us i don't think they make movies that scary anymore um i mean i guess they do but just have the memory of it just being like horrifying um so before we even got to your house afterwards though the The jump scare of all jump scares is is the closet scene.
00:20:00
Speaker
Now, oh yeah this is a pretty famous Will story because what happened, Will, when when the jump scare happened with the closet? Well, first of all, in your Jaws episode, you were talking about like all time jump scares. I'm going to say this one. We've got a fan. Will's gonna listen i listening to the pop. I love it.
00:20:19
Speaker
This is the all time biggest jump scare because you don't know it's coming. It's like they're talking in the kitchen and they're just its the lights are on. It's bright. I'm thinking this is like a safe time to like remove my hands or my ears from getting scared from like a loud noise or something. I'm relaxed.
00:20:35
Speaker
just having a kitchen conversation all of a sudden it cuts to like uh someone opening up a closet with uh with the head um that like falls down it's like the skin sucked off of it and the loud noise or whatever but yeah i just i totally ah went limp and passed out um It's never happened before in my life, hasn't happened since, but I legit passed out for, I don't know, maybe 10, 15 seconds.
00:21:05
Speaker
I look over and I'm like, I need some reassurance of what I just saw. I am scared. And you, I thought you were asleep or something. i was like, how did Will fall asleep?
00:21:16
Speaker
Yeah, you have to be mentally ill to fall asleep in that movie. You get a nudge and you're like not waking up. And I was like, oh oh my god. like You were scared and you fainted. how do you think I felt though? And I looked over and see a dead body right there. i yeah Dead body's next to you. Dead body's on the screen now.
00:21:32
Speaker
Dude, yeah. Iconic, iconic moment in the theater. Easily biggest scary moment of my movie watching history. And what you just said, I think Travis and were going to talk about later anyways, but like 100% the setup for that scene is fucking perfect.
00:21:50
Speaker
Like there's no lead in with the strings or music. And there's not like she like you said, well, like she's just having a conversation. And the the madman Gore Verbinski cuts to a very scary image in the middle of her like mundane conversation. Like, yeah't you just don't see that a lot.
00:22:07
Speaker
Yeah. And I don't watch too many movies in theaters anymore. so I don't think people are even watching it now. have experience I wonder why it will. ah Maybe after that, you hung it up. All right. um Wanted to wrap up with talking about the the days after, and you already started to talk about it, like seeing scary images in your house.
00:22:26
Speaker
Dude, this is what I remember. I remember not leaving your house. I remember not going home. Like it was commonplace sometimes for us to sleep over at your place on like school nights, just cause like your mom was cool with it. My parents were like, whatever.
00:22:42
Speaker
But this time, i think I feel like I stayed for like ah good four or five days because I felt there was some protection of knowing that I watched it with somebody who saw the same thing and that nobody else in my house would understand.
00:22:54
Speaker
They wouldn't understand what I just watched. its It was like this poison inside me. And I was like, well, if we're going down, we're going down together. But thank you, Will, for for being there. um Even though for 10 or 15 seconds you weren't during the movie theater, ah I appreciate you putting a roof a roof over my head for the next four days.
00:23:12
Speaker
Yeah, well, I appreciate you ah not giving me mouth-to-mouth when you suddenly passed out. well Maybe I did. You'll never know. um We'll work out the kinks for this next time, and we'll do a longer conversation. But I just wanted to reminisce, like, one of the – not one of – the scariest moment in theaters for me ever, and i'm I'm glad we could share it together even though you were unconscious for part of it.
00:23:31
Speaker
Yeah, the only time i passed out. I'm happy to be your first guest. I hope I get cool sweatshirt something at some point. Yeah, we'll get the swag team right on it. Hey, well, good talking to you ah and Travis.
00:23:44
Speaker
Good to hear from you, Will. See you, buddy. Thanks, Will.
00:23:50
Speaker
um Let's talk about Gore Verbinski. Coming into this film again, huge box office success with this film. And it's actually on the heels of he had two films prior to this and they're both pretty big successes as well.
Gore Verbinski's Career and The Ring's Musical Score
00:24:04
Speaker
Mousetrap, kids comedy, over 100 million worldwide box office, not that loved by critics, but did super well.
00:24:12
Speaker
And then he goes in and does the Mexican with Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts. And I think as well in in the the Mexican. Julie Roberts and Brad Pitt are in the Mexican. Yeah. And that was like 140 million worldwide box office.
00:24:27
Speaker
And then he blows it out of the park with his third film, which is this, the ring. And immediately after, do you know what the next film is that he goes to direct? Oh yeah. um It's Pirates of the Caribbean, right? Yeah. Pirates of the Caribbean, which become mega, mega blockbusters. And he does the first three films there.
00:24:45
Speaker
So the guy had, the golden touch from the get-go with his first films. Do you know what Gore Verbinski directed before these feature films? um The Cure for the Wellness? Are you talking about like before movie movies?
00:24:57
Speaker
Yeah, before movie movies. i looked Oh, didn't he do like the Budweiser commercial? did the Budweiser commercial with the three frogs going on. Which is iconic. Why? ah um That was him.
00:25:08
Speaker
That was him. Yeah. So Gore just killing it. I i want to say that ah I think the script is serviceable. I don't ah don't think it's anything special.
00:25:21
Speaker
what I really noticed like two high points about this movie is the directing specifically, the, um, blocking and the color palette, which I'm going to get into a little bit. And it's, because, and the, the thing was gonna say the score, I think it's Hans Zimmer. Just, just let's talk about the first time working with Hans Zimmer, Gore Verbinski,
00:25:47
Speaker
Great score, but it also forges their relationship with, that's why he brings Hans Zimmer back for the Pirates of the Caribbean score in his next film, which is a very, very iconic score, potentially. you know I'd probably put that in my top 10 scores of all time. It's a great score. I mean, it's Zimmerman. Yeah.
00:26:03
Speaker
So what I like about it is that it's, it keeps you on your feet without drawing too much attention to itself. It's it's not formulaic. it It's grandiose at times and it's calm at other times.
00:26:15
Speaker
There's also, I haven't looked this up. I would love to um later, but like, You've seen Suspiria? urgent I have not. okay so we will ah At some point, we'll talk ah about you know Italian giallo films, but iconic score by um the musical group Goblin.
00:26:33
Speaker
And there's a song that Zimmer uses in this movie, In the Ring, and they play it again at a certain point during the credits, it's a dead ringer for it. I'd love to know if he like, it was an overt call out or whatever, but yeah, love the score. It really, it was something that I don't remember, um you know, picking out last time.
00:26:53
Speaker
Yeah. I, I think, you know, to bring in Hans Zimmer on a film, it is a tribute to when you get a bigger budget, horror film, you could do something like that and you can have some truly iconic scores with that. I think what the scariest scores are usually going to be provided to you by Hans Zimmer or John Carpenter doing his own score.
00:27:14
Speaker
Well, he's they save money by not by having kind of a no name cast. I mean, Naomi Watts had just come off Warhol and but she was ah had was not a star by any means.
00:27:25
Speaker
And the the guy or what's her partner's name in this? Martin Henderson. Yeah. Martin Henderson. Haven't seen him since. Luke Wilson kind of stand and ah But yeah, he they, you know, they shot a lot of things practically that could hire Hans Zimmer.
00:27:42
Speaker
um I think that it worked out that they didn't get this, you know, and we've talked about this before. Horror never really needs a big name, but you know, yeah. Naomi Watts though is fantastic in this film. I think it's one of the cast where,
00:27:54
Speaker
The rest, I don't want to say lacking, but the rest is ho-hum. But she, I think, delivers an incredible performance here. And it makes sense why she then has a kind of, you know, a career resurgence or I guess not even research. She's a big name for herself.
00:28:11
Speaker
Quasi Scream Queen. You know, she's she's been in her fair share of horror films. Mulholland is like definitely in the horror ah space.
00:28:28
Speaker
Funny Games, another remake. haven't seen that one. um Great movie. Okay, the color grading. Again, i'm when I think about this movie before rewatching it, I mainly think about how it made me feel, not how it looked. and i I didn't remember how it looked until I just went back and rewatched it. This time I picked up on it right away.
00:28:50
Speaker
I don't know if you could tell Travis how, uh, usually when a movie makes a bold color choice like this, it can kind of look cheap because it usually is a cheap thing they do. They will just color correct in post.
00:29:02
Speaker
They'll use digital filters. They will, it's kind of, um, it's a process you do if you're not sure when you're making the film, how you want it to look in the final. Um,
00:29:14
Speaker
But what Gore did here is ah truly a sign of being confident and sure-footed in his like aesthetic. So instead of just shooting in the raw or like shooting normally, he used actual... He used camera filters.
00:29:28
Speaker
So he would use plates and filters to give it that green... kind of sickly look that stays with you. ah wardrobes were, were green adjacent, you know, like this wasn't just something that, Oh, let's just put a filter on it. Like Instagram, like it was very often perfect too, because the setting for the movie is in Seattle, a famously wet city.
00:29:50
Speaker
And this green blue lens that they're using for the camera just makes everything feel wet. Right. And like, and, and isolated me and cold. yeah so I, I,
00:30:02
Speaker
forgot about the color of the film and how it looked, you know, especially when you're a kid, you're not paying attention to that. Rewatch it now. I think it's great. It's truly something unique that sets this film apart and it's done well.
00:30:16
Speaker
It was a big swing that I think, again, he he made contact on. So I also think that it plays into just how you feel about the movie, because what you just said, like it's wet, you know, things are kind of gross. It's kind of isolated.
00:30:29
Speaker
this is like a definitive feels bad man movies. It's a feels bad movie. And like, I think little creative choices like that, I mean, they even did stuff where they, they tried to shoot it in a way where no characters shadows were being shown.
00:30:42
Speaker
So things just seemed off, you know? are interesting And, and I think that little, little choices like that, it just gets under your skin. And like, that is what I'm taking away from this movie. This, uh, watching it now older is like it,
00:30:58
Speaker
it it doesn't come off campy. It doesn't come off try hard. Like it's, it just makes you feel icky about things. Sickness and decay were like things that I thought about, even though like the horse, you, you have this almost this moment of like beauty ah and it just ruins your day. And I'm sure the categories will get into that. yes That was a category movie. Oh yes. That was a category scene for me.
00:31:22
Speaker
Well, I'm about ready to jump into the categories. I did have one other production that I wanted to bring up. Yeah. Adam Brody cameo. I did not realize this, that when I watched it, I was so young kids before he was in anything else. This is before he was even in the TV show, the OC where I was first introduced to him.
00:31:40
Speaker
But Adam Brody is one of the high schoolers that you see. he i think he probably has three lines. He's in the movie for less than a minute. And I was thrilled because Adam Brody, I already consider a scream King. Someone who's been in at least three plus horror movies. He's been and Jennifer's body scream for ready or not.
00:31:58
Speaker
And then to see him in this film briefly, i had no idea he was in this. So I thought that was really cool seeing him like very, very early on in his career. He kind of held the frame of a small moment. Like he kind of captures the the art of a rumor and these early indications of virality and like old folk, like modern folk tales, I guess like modern in the sense that like, it's a rumor that, or a,
00:32:22
Speaker
you know, gossip that kids are sharing, but these things become folktales. They become like urban legend. And like, he's so sure of himself. Everything he's saying like is just the thing, you know? And I think he, I think it does a great job of like setting the tone of the movie.
00:32:36
Speaker
Also, maybe a lot changed between 2002. And then when we entered high school in 2004, lots of high schoolers smoking cigarettes in this movie, which I, I don't know. Maybe maybe I just went to a different high school or maybe the times changed in those two years, but,
00:32:52
Speaker
really was that popular anymore by the time I got to high school in 2004. I don't know what your high school experience was, but not everyone was always hanging out and smoking cigarettes. I i convinced myself i was addicted to cigarettes for a week.
00:33:03
Speaker
think really wanted to be, but I i wasn't. my My brother one time came out when I was on the patio. like and I have asthma, so I was like not even inhaling. i was just like sucking in the smoke and then blowing it out. My parents been over my parents were like some doing something and my brother comes out and he sees me and I turn around and I say, just go back inside. like Take a long drag.
00:33:28
Speaker
you don't You don't want to be like me, kid. Anyways. I do actually have a few more production notes, but I will keep it quick. So, uh, so ah Another thing is that um they, yeah oh, the the casting what ifs.
00:33:45
Speaker
ah Jennifer Love Hewitt turns it down. She didn't want to be typecast as a screen queen because she was just coming off of I Know What You Did Last Summer and I Still Know What You Did Last Summer. um Jennifer Connelly said no, but then curiously then took a role for J-horror film a few years later, Dark Waters. Um, and then also Gwyneth Paltrow and Kate Beckinsale. I do wonder, cause some of these are bigger names. I think all of them are bigger names than Naomi Watts. I wonder if, uh, Gore was the one saying no in the studio is pushing these other faces. And finally they just settled with what he wanted.
00:34:19
Speaker
Um, Brian Cox was the only actor who they had that for that role. They're like, we have nobody else in mind, which I love Brian Cox. Another actor is in a lot of horror films, but I, I,
00:34:31
Speaker
began to really love him when he was in the succession TV series on HBO. So now he is, I don't know, one of my favorite 60 plus year old actors out there. Um, all right. Another thing was, um, did you, did you read up about, or do you remember if you had the movie, uh, the, the special feature of, of the video itself?
00:34:51
Speaker
No. Okay. So, uh, there's a part in the menu where if you want to watch the video, you can, but something happens that you're probably not expecting as a, as a kid with the remote, it locks down your remote.
00:35:05
Speaker
Okay. So it starts to play the video. And if you want to press pause or go away, you can't, it, it like, it hijacks the remote. And then, ah After it finishes playing, I mean, of course, you can like unplug your TV or whatever, but after it finishes playing, it goes to an image of the menu screen. So you think it's over and then a phone rings, like the sound of a phone rings.
00:35:28
Speaker
That's amazing. that's not I miss DVDs. I know you're still big into physical media. Hey, that's making want to come back. When the apocalypse happens, people can are going to rent from me. um Another note, um I want to say a shout out to Pat Blue, who has has gotten me more interested in like ah and and looking at painters and trying to understand them and comparing them to like other modalities like film.
00:35:51
Speaker
um Apparently, the production designer, Tom Duffels, on this film was really inspired by an American a realist painter called Andrew Wyeth. um podcast isn't the best place to like show you his work, but I would just say go check it out. There's a lot of like eerie looks, eerie landscapes with like single trees and like one person in frame, and it has a kind of like muted color palette to it. ah Really eerie pastoral kind of aesthetic. and um
00:36:22
Speaker
I love looking at a few of his paintings because I can definitely see the the inspiration. so Andrew Wyeth is a a guy that made The Ring indirectly be a lot creepier and cool. I like it.
00:36:35
Speaker
Categories? Categories. Let's move into them. So we are adding a new one that I think will carry on going forward. But this movie reminded me, again, Big Tent, the horror genre, which means there's some truly scary films. There's also some, you Fun, good special effects, makes you laugh.
00:36:54
Speaker
So we want to actually start ah adding our horror rating out of 10 to just purely say, how scary is this film? Okay. There could be some wonderful films we covered that just aren't as scary. So curious, Rick. So first of all, were clarifying this is... There could be a fantastic horror film that is like 10 out of 10 in my eyes.
00:37:14
Speaker
But it could be a one on the scary movie. Oh, I love Shaun of the Dead. It's probably one of my, you know, top 20 horror films of all time. Probably a one on the scary movie. Second. Being scared is an emotional, subjective thing.
00:37:27
Speaker
um we're We're still, this is going to be what we feel is scary to us. Yeah. or ah the Okay. Then third question loops into that a bit. Is this at the high point of it scary? Like when I was 12 and you were 13 14? Or is now we're 35?
00:37:42
Speaker
think it's,
00:37:45
Speaker
I think it has to be now for us so that we could keep an even playing field with other films or else all our scariest films would be the ones we saw between 2000 to 2009. Do we allow for um ah recalibration? Because anytime you start a ranking system or a rating system, you have to revisit it a bit because yeah early on you can.
00:38:07
Speaker
Okay. Yeah.
00:38:11
Speaker
I'm going to go with like, it's like a good seven or eight. oh yeah Oh yeah. I mean, I watched it alone and it wasn't just the jump scares. It has fantastic jump scares. Like I felt ah uneasy, you know?
00:38:26
Speaker
Um, I felt in control. i was like, everything's going to be okay, but it lost me a few times, you know, uh, It's atmospheric, very dread-inducing and atmospheric. Yeah, I'll side with you and say eight. My litmus test is very simple.
00:38:43
Speaker
It's the amount of times I involuntarily raise my hands to my face to cover my eyes or ears. I have the great my god such a great visual of Travis just and i alone. Again, adult man. Over his face.
00:38:57
Speaker
I watch this horror movie once the rest of my family has gone to sleep. I put my girls down. My wife's even sleeping. I'm by myself watching this. And here I am cowering still at this film that I thought I would be brave enough to watch 20 plus years later from the first time I saw it. But that is not the case. This is still ah truly scary film. In fact, of all the films we've covered thus far, I think it has to be highest up there with only bring her back exactly being a truly scary film because i love 28 days later 28 weeks later 28 years and jaws but all of those would be more those middle um tier rankings i think for scariness you're talking like four to six or so where
00:39:38
Speaker
I'd argue that is scary it surpasses bring her back because I feel like bring her back is more disturbing than it is scary. yeah It made me feel bad, but I think consistency wise, the ring as a, as a whole is a very scary product.
00:39:56
Speaker
Yeah. Very. So let's jump, let's jump in then to the rest of our categories. First being highlights, our favorite scene or set piece. um I think we'll, Started covering this, but actually it's the scene leading up. my My favorite scene or set piece is the cold open. There is no title card for this movie. It goes right and to it goes right into a slumber party where we see Katie and her friend um discussing, you know, boys discussing what they've been up to.
00:40:29
Speaker
And all of a sudden when they bring up the tape, like from the jump, we have her faking her own choking incident. We have a few red herrings. We have a phone call that is terrifying, but it happens to be just from her mom.
00:40:44
Speaker
And it all leads up to the shock of, you know, slowly building and building
Iconic Scenes and Themes in 'The Ring'
00:40:50
Speaker
dread. And then you don't actually see her demise at this point. well I forgot about that. You you see it later.
00:40:55
Speaker
That cold open has me glued to the screen for the full like 10 minutes of it. It was absolutely phenomenal. One of the best openings and horror movies, which I know I just said for Jaws is well in our last episode, but this one's truly scary.
00:41:09
Speaker
what is a What does it say that when I see this opening and it's and it is amazing, um I can't not think about Scary Movie 3. Scary Movie 3. I wrote that down as well, man.
00:41:21
Speaker
Pam Anderson. But I saw that before I saw The Ring. um So that could probably help date when I ended up seeing The Ring. I saw it shortly thereafter. And yes, it was such an iconic opening that they used as the opening for Scary Movie 3, which is amazing.
00:41:36
Speaker
And, you know, scary movies are... So I don't remember much of Scary Movie 3 other than that opening scene they spoof from The Ring. ah I think you're exactly right that the it's it's one of the best cold openings for a horror film. Yeah, it's pulpy relative to the rest of the movie.
00:42:00
Speaker
um This is what we've seen in horror before, especially from a lot of like we're talking about like 80s, 90s slashers, but it's still done so well. It's so scary. It sets the tone right for this film. um any honorable mention scenes at other points of the movie that or or did you have a completely different pick for um yeah for me it's the ending um her crawling out of the screen is like yes peak peak horror our generation's horror like to me that's you can't mention the top five best horror films of you know our generation if you would give it you know
00:42:36
Speaker
mid nineties to mid or mid two thousands, whatever. It's just iconic. And I was waiting for that moment to happen. I was like, is it going to work? Is it going to land? It's, it's great. You know, like even though they do use a bit more CGI in that part than other elements of the movie, ah ah see I think it still holds up. So i think the effects look great on it. still yeah, it was. So speaking of effects, I, this might be a segue to, unless you have anything to say about that last scene.
00:43:00
Speaker
No, I, that was up there for honorable mentions for sure. Let's see. um Oh, okay. Okay. Highlight, we revisit it so much, but it's it's so, it infects the rest of the movie, is the video itself. So Gore Viminski shot that.
00:43:15
Speaker
It's all practical effects. It helps it feel tactile and antique. And the... there is something, I don't know even what this is called, but when you see a scary thing and then you see echoes of that scary thing in the real world, i think that's why it makes it so scary to me, this movie, because like what's happening, Naomi Watts, like she basically has a nightmare and that nightmare is the video.
00:43:37
Speaker
And now she's walking through her life and seeing the mirror on the wall and seeing the ladder and seeing the ring. And it's like, there's a transference that happens to her, but it's happening to us. Cause I'm like, Oh shit.
00:43:50
Speaker
this is real, you know? And then I start to look across the hallway and like, what just moved over there? I lift up my coffee mug and I see a ring or somebody calls me and like, that's really effective, especially if you're 12 or 13. But so I guess highlight for me would be what a great artifact of the movie.
00:44:06
Speaker
And like, yeah it is, so it it it just lingers because of the way it's peppered throughout the movie, the rest of it. to To me, the movie itself is, The film within the film was actually scarier than Samara for the exact reasons you said. And I think it was so important for them to nail that. That really is the crux of the evil, at least the way we see it carried out through the film. And it was it was very creepy. I mean, it does.
00:44:32
Speaker
i like the critique Noah's character. shares that it looks a bit like a student film or art house because that's true as well but it's it is disturbing and then you see throughout the rest of the film there's a lot of these flash cuts um to brief imagery back from that movie that they sneak in for just a frame or two which i think is really cool too as callbacks to it as a kid, I felt like I was watching something I shouldn't be.
00:44:58
Speaker
It was like a snuff film. It was like the way these images are juxtaposed together. I'm not old enough to understand really what they mean. If they mean anything, I just know that this is like forbidden or something. And it, it, it does play like an art rated movie.
00:45:13
Speaker
You know, it, it, once I learned learned that they had to like really cut down and get, like they didn't set out to make a PG, their team movie. And now that makes sense to me. Cause I'm like, the sensibility, the tone out, the bleakness, the dread, that video, that's all very adult and very just evil.
00:45:32
Speaker
All right. So for jump scare, I think your friend will touched on what's easily the best. What's the award called? thought we're going to name it. Yes. Well, that's exactly why I still wanted to pause on this category.
00:45:45
Speaker
We're trying to name some of our categories now. And on the heels of Jaws, we are honorably naming this the Ben Gardner jump scare for Ben Gardner, severed head and jaws. I love this. Not severed. You need to we have to talk about this. You have to make some amends, not a severed head.
00:46:01
Speaker
Floating head. You mainly only see his head on the screen, but yes, you are correct. And so the Ben Gardner- You can also just call the Gardner, like if we want to be colloquial, like the Oscars, you receive an Academy Award, if you want to be quick, you call it an Oscar.
00:46:14
Speaker
You can also call this Gardner or a Gardner. Gardner. Okay. Well, the Gardner in this film goes to- You do, isn't it? Ask questions.
00:46:25
Speaker
Rachel, please.
00:46:32
Speaker
I saw her face.
00:46:36
Speaker
Half second to one second at most visual of Katie's face, which is absolutely terrifying. It's it's almost comical because just prior to that, they mentioned like, oh, it seems like she like how sad for such a young girl to have heart problems.
00:46:51
Speaker
This was clearly more than a heart attack. Her jaw looks like it's been like broken off. It's hanging so low. Her face is purple. um Her head's hanging low. Like it was absolutely terrifying for them to quickly sneak in that, that quick. I have a question.
00:47:07
Speaker
I have a question about this and I, not that I want to move on. This is the clear winner. it is the most effective jump scare in my life in terms of first time viewing.
00:47:17
Speaker
So I've never had a movie scare me as much that moment. Iconic, but I have a question and it's related to this scene and another one. So when Samara makes eye contact with you, you die or something like that, right?
00:47:32
Speaker
So in the opening, her face starts to turn as she is standing in the hallway. Like, right. And that's the beginning of the movie. The camera zooms in and the opening of the movie and her face has started to turn. Does that mean she then like stumbled into the closet and like slowly died?
00:47:51
Speaker
Because she, she starts to turn when she's in the entryway. was just standing in the yeah middle of the room or just walked. So second. So then, then follow me here.
00:48:02
Speaker
The last death of the movie, Noah, he dies seemingly on the ground. He is he is like on his back. His hands are up because he's cutting his feet behind the glass. But she finds him in a chair. So is Samara doing some art installations here? Is she like these bodies putting the bodies into... like I gotta make sure they look a little scarier right here. i it's put on the plan Let put you on the chair.
00:48:24
Speaker
i just thought it was like, well, so is she dragging her lifeless body into the closet and then just dies? or is like Samara... like having some fun here. So yeah, I think she is scaring them to death.
00:48:36
Speaker
So it's kind of like the um aftershock from an earthquake. She knows she can get maybe a few extra scares by then positioning the body after they die in the perfect way where the person who discovers them could get a little little spook as well. Oh, so she's doubling up on scares.
00:48:50
Speaker
Yeah. she's It's kind of like Monsters, Inc. universe. like she i think you eat How do you bring Monsters, Inc. into every conversation? This is the first time on the pod, but if it off pod, you're always rigging up Monsters, Inc.
Monsters, Inc. and Iconic Death Scenes
00:49:03
Speaker
You were very upset it wasn't on the New York... Yes. Oh my god. That was your biggest threat. with all the Pixar movies they put there, not putting Monsters Inc was an absolute travesty. I i cannot believe that. that I think that is my favorite Pixar movie. When I opened this the and ah point where we were talking about NYT and I said, I'm not one of those guys who says, oh, they should have put it in there this, that. I was thinking of you with Monsters Inc. I was trying to quell your your anger because anytime I mention a list where Monsters Inc is that scary, that's scarier than Samara. That blows me away. But anyways, let's move on.
00:49:38
Speaker
So congrats to Katie's face that that definitely gets our Ben Gardner Award for this film. Speaking of naming categories, so it's already a very long title with watching through the gaps in your fingers.
00:49:50
Speaker
This is again, not the jump scare, but the part where you know, a jump scare incoming or it is very high stress. Or it's gross. Or it's gross where it's cringy. It's hard to watch.
00:50:00
Speaker
So we wanted to name this. The name that's currently going to stick with it is the bringer back cantaloupe award. um Again, if you've watched that film or listened to our pod and remember that scene, very difficult scene to watch.
00:50:13
Speaker
And so that scene in this movie, The Ring, the hardest one for me to watch, I i actually went back and I put the actual footage on the tape again. You see millipedes crawling around, maggots.
00:50:25
Speaker
It's either intestines or hair getting pulled out of some random person's mouth. um You know, you got the spinning chair, you got the ladder. that was the hardest for me where i had forgotten what's on this like found footage VHS tape. So we're watching it now 20 plus years later.
00:50:40
Speaker
i was I was prepared for something more shocking and I was terrified watching that. So not sure if that's what you had as your winner or if you had other parts, because there are plenty of instances in this movie where, again, i was struggling to watch it without covering my eyes.
00:50:56
Speaker
I think that the ring video is a more important element than what I'm about to mention, but that isn't what I put. um i put ah her Naomi Watts being in the well.
00:51:07
Speaker
Yeah, he's fucking free. I hate it. i hate it. And then I love it because I hate it so much. But like, Dark waters, like you're standing around in water and like you don't know what's down there. And in this case, you do know what's down there. And that is the second arm grab a jump scare in the movie. And it works just as effectively. And there's just like that is the epitome of this like sunken death, like.
00:51:32
Speaker
it's rot. It's, but it's just like, ah I was on the edge of my seat watching that because I it was like putting myself in her shoes. Like, i don't want to be in that gross ass water. A hundred percent. It's, it's already scary. And then you see Samara's corpse surface and it's perfectly preserved.
00:51:50
Speaker
And I'd forgotten. I was like, wait, that, that doesn't make any sense. So as soon as you start to see the reality set in and Naomi Watts, his character starts to see that corpse rot. that was terrifying as well where was like, oh my God, this is, you know, a corpse is already going to decompose corpse in water.
00:52:07
Speaker
I knew that was going to get real ugly real quickly. Yeah. So um I'm fine giving it to the ring video though, because that should just win something. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's why I gave it there. Although I'm with you. The well was, there's a lot of great, great honorable mentions for this category specifically. So what wins?
00:52:27
Speaker
You know, i I'm actually going the other way. And I i think the well was. I just said, oh I really, there I actually also thought of the well. I was just trying to like, i was like, man, I haven't. um kind of shity one Well, I was like, i have I need more chits with Travis. I feel like, you know I came on the pod late today and we had to switch the time and I was like, all right, i need to give him something. So I was just trying to it was a political move. I like i like the well scene as well.
00:52:49
Speaker
All right. Let's go with that. um Okay. So we have two death-related awards, and this is where I think we have to draw a distinction again, because there's only a few deaths.
00:52:59
Speaker
There's only six. There's only six deaths. Well, 5.5, because I think know our rule is that animals are.5. Exactly. So that's where I want to... distinguish here. Best death should usually go to a more central character who has a role or cannon fodder. Yes, i know. Just a brief cameo or a brief death of a character you are introduced to just for the soul sake of watching them die, um whether that be human or animal.
00:53:24
Speaker
So for best death, since it has to be a more central character, I had Noah meeting his demise at the very end of the film when Samara crawls out of the TV. Because like you were saying earlier, that is one of the scariest parts of the film.
00:53:38
Speaker
And that is probably the most iconic death, especially since Katie, who dies at the very beginning of the film, she dies off screen. So it's very scary when you see the result that in her demise. They both die the same way, if you think about it.
00:53:51
Speaker
Because the last... The last shot of both of them, their faces are turning a little purple and their eyes are, you you see more of Samara. Maybe that's why you're feeling that. but Yes, I think that's right. Because for Katie's death at the very beginning, it's kind of from the point of view of the TV screen or from. Correct. so well and There's also a lot of like, like you were saying, like red herrings, like the cabinets are scary, but his is like, that's just a murder. Like you just see him get murked.
00:54:17
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Um, I think I agree. i think I was making my notes as I was watching the movie and I was like, I had in best death because I, So I feel the best death is the horse.
00:54:30
Speaker
Exactly. It is also definitively cannon fodder. Exactly. And I was like, what am i going to put for best death? And I had Brian Cox in there for a bit just cause it's so jarring and like out of nowhere.
00:54:41
Speaker
ah but then yeah, once Noah, that scene came out, that's like the clear, that's the clear. word Yeah. Brian Cox just loading way more electrical than he needs to get into the bathtub. So determined to die. Yeah.
00:54:53
Speaker
It's really meets his demise. But, I'm with you. And maybe we should led with cannon fodder because the best dude that's in the movie that is, is the horse is. I was so yeah tickled and impressed and just like, what a fucking great scene.
00:55:07
Speaker
So one of the reasons it plays so well, in my opinion, so let's just set up the scene. So Naomi Watts is, is getting very close to discovering more information about this. She's on the ferry. She's on the ferry to the creepy Island. Yeah.
00:55:20
Speaker
Yes, and then she catches a glimpse of a big ol' eyeball in one of these horse trailers, which is the same shot you see in the ring video, and a horse is in there, it looks, but you think you're going to have a nice little beautiful moment, no, she spooks it, it kicks itself out, and then If that just happened, that would have been enough. But no, you have it running around, which just looks like it just looks off like a horse on a boat and it's around cars.
00:55:49
Speaker
Then they add in the little girl saying, daddy, my horse. It's like she's laying it on thick. Then of ah and ah in another movie, maybe you just have it leap off the ocean and that's it.
00:56:01
Speaker
Not only does it leap, it fucking, it clips its knees and like, here's this thud. And i'm I just like was, oof, that, that sucks. Then maybe that'd be the end, but no, it's nagging in the water and like just tortured. And it's like in pain and agony and horses are so majestic. And I'm so sad. I'm like, Oh, that fucking horse.
00:56:22
Speaker
But no, it doesn't stop there. Travis, what happens after they all run to the other side of the boat to see what happened to this horse? Yeah. And then you see just this huge red cloud of blood start to come up from the back of the boat.
00:56:35
Speaker
While the little girl, the the horse's owner presumably sees it as well, it just starts screaming bloody murder as you see that the boat has now ran over the horse. The engine presumably has just torn it.
00:56:48
Speaker
Just blended it up. So sal yeah how realistic is this? like i but This horse is running around. you have a minute of footage of it running over cars, through people, on a ferry, and even the horse falling, jumping off the boat and clipping the boat on the way down.
00:57:04
Speaker
Like, i I had to double check to make sure they didn't kill a real horse to make a scene because it looks incredibly realistic. I want to avoid being two old guys on a podcast repeating the same thing over and over.
00:57:17
Speaker
Like, oh, horror films aren't don't get enough love at the Oscars or horror ah movies in general are better with practical effects. Well, that's where I'm going here. and I just ah have to say...
00:57:29
Speaker
It's one of the reasons why shoot practical if you can. Gore ensured that there was, he didn't want to use hardly any CGI here. So what they did was everything you see is either a real horse or an animatronic.
00:57:44
Speaker
And by clever cutting, he's able to hide the obvious animatronic elements. So one example is like when she's fucking with the horse, And it's getting rattled. And she is fucking with that horse. know. I don't what she's doing. It's some blame on what's her name? Rachel is named by Watts character. Kind of an early nominee for don't go in there. Don't go in there. What are you doing?
00:58:05
Speaker
Well, I love. so the horse is getting spooked. It like it releases itself from its little leash and you see it turn around, like do a complete 180, but you don't actually see it kick the door.
00:58:19
Speaker
it then just cuts to the outside of the door, the aluminum door getting kicked out. So Gore is like being really economic in his shot sequences here by like, all right, if I have to get this horse to train to kick, that's either dangerous or expensive or not or I don't want to...
00:58:37
Speaker
do an animatronic horse, let's just position it so your brain knows what it's about to do and then you see the kick. So little things like that I think really help ah make it feel really real and like effective. and In a lesser movie that doesn't execute this as effectively as Gore does, um I think this that this scene particular It doesn't age well. Yeah, it can be funny and campy and like shocking and silly, but it's it's it is the only thing of those things is that it it is shocking and it is something to have fun about and poke fun about because of how shocking it is.
00:59:08
Speaker
But as a narrative device and like a moment in the movie that you need, it is so effective and looks great. And like another testament to why you shoot practically as much as you can.
00:59:20
Speaker
i would I would think I was most, this was the scene where i was like, wow I don't remember this being so great, but what ah what an iconic scene in the movie that you don't hear about enough. Yeah. It's one of those marquee set pieces. I mean, even going back to like best scene in the movie, I guess we could have given this honorable mention because I didn't remember it as well as the cold open, but it was...
00:59:44
Speaker
It's fascinating. I don't want to sound too morbid, but fascinating to watch. and it It blows me away. it's still think it's just so just so great. its Hey, we should also have a girl in there who ah screams and tells the audience that this is her horse. I still have some secondhand.
00:59:58
Speaker
You had to have a screamer to really drill that scene in. I don't think we were going to get a good scream. You need secondhand terror. you know Exactly. Exactly. All right. Let's move on to our don't go in there award.
01:00:10
Speaker
um maybe poor choices by the characters and doing something they should not do you know I I really I really think Samara was not thinking straight when she just dove headfirst into the well especially with a bag on her head just real bad form of like don't go in there so she should not have gone into the well I like that literal um I had Aiden choosing to voluntarily watch the tape you know like come on man use a little self-control like what is he doing putting yeah because he comes across
Character Peculiarities and Themes in 'The Ring'
01:00:40
Speaker
so wise and uh calculated in his words and he's but but but oh here's the thing though at that point should he know that it's a bad tape like does he does he know there's danger yeah i don't know if i'm if i'm a kid and i can't sleep which was his excuse there's probably like other movies i'm going to not just the weird unlabeled tape that i that find laying around but but he's kind of i guess he's a creepy little fuck yes yeah
01:01:06
Speaker
Yeah. um Any other honorable mentions? I think that's really all I had for that. Oh, I mean, we just mentioned it, but Naomi Watts, like, going into the space of that horse.
01:01:18
Speaker
Like, don't do that. That horse is just trying to chill. Yeah. In fact, i like that. I think that should be the winner. Like, don't don talk with the horse. Like, she knows horses are weirdly involved in this, which I still don't fully...
01:01:30
Speaker
ah understand why there were so many horse suicides. It's Marv before she was killing people. She was killing horses, but apparently she didn't need video or VHS to do that, presumably. But um yeah, let me watch it and known better. Not innocent. Naomi Watts on that one.
01:01:46
Speaker
um All right. Best line. i This was just so iconic. You know, there's other lines I like, but when yeah and you only hear it once, which I love all the other times you get a phone call.
01:01:57
Speaker
And we watch sends it to voicemail. This is great. So we don't have to redundant. ah You are, you are referring to seven days, seven days.
01:02:08
Speaker
Yes. Seven days. Did you hear Will will said it on the on the pod? Yes, yes. I was like, when when he called, man, if Will is still the same guy, I remember he's going open with seven days. going open with seven days, yes. um All right. We knew that was the, that's the most iconic and likely the winner, but I do have two others that i really liked.
01:02:28
Speaker
Yeah. um One, one is more, back into that creepy or mundane element domestic grief. And that's when you start to really get a sense of that. Aiden is not your typical kid.
01:02:40
Speaker
When someone's like, they're at the memorial and he's in his dead cousin's room. And someone's like, Hey, get like, come on, get out of there. he goes like, get out of her room. And his answer is it's not her room anymore. It's like, well, you fucking philosophically weird little kid, but you're kind of right. Like she doesn't exist anymore.
01:03:00
Speaker
I have a lot to unpack with Aiden when we get the dull knives here. So that that definitely fits home with that line. we We need to litigate what dull knives are. Because the way you say that makes me feel like you you have issues with the film. To me, dull knives is like impracticalities.
01:03:17
Speaker
ah Like not plausible things. i I think it could be a bit of both. I think it's just... parts of the film where you seem disconnected. So that could either be implausible things that were intentionally put in the film or maybe just short-sighted answers. Maybe questions, right? I don't want look a gift horse in the mouth and then throw that horse into the propeller of a cruise. Before jump into those, I can lead with this one about Aiden. You said you had one other that you were writing. Yeah.
01:03:46
Speaker
It's from Samara. So might might have two kid quotes. It's when she's in the psych ward and they're like, but you don't want to do this anymore. Like, you don't want to hurt these people. And she's just like, but I do.
01:03:58
Speaker
Yes. And I'm sorry. it's like, she's like, I do want to get hurt people. And I'm sorry about that. I'm just going to keep doing it. You know, having kids now, that quote makes a lot more sense. Like when we try to reprimand one of our daughters for hitting the other.
01:04:15
Speaker
And we're like, you know, do you feel sorry about what just And they're like, no, I don't. I'm like, okay. But in this case, she is sorry. Yeah. But what she said, she's going to keep doing it. I mean, that's the more real, you know, our daughter said like, hey, I'm sorry, probably going to happen again. Oh, I That's the more empathetic response, honestly, I think is, you know.
01:04:37
Speaker
I like that. i done it but You feel bad about it. i like that you're one of your first mentions of your kids on this pod is just related, comparing them to Samara, one of the scariest characters.
01:04:48
Speaker
Every kid has a little devil in them. what What else? you Seven days. it It probably has to be the factor winner. But did you have any others that you liked? Only the one where ah Naomi Watts, her character is talking to Aiden's teacher early in the film.
01:05:03
Speaker
And the teacher is showing her Aiden's drawings and the teacher who goes, you say she died three nights ago. Aiden drew these last week as if, you know, he, he knew this was coming down the pipeline, which we never, maybe that's a dull knife, but we never really understand why.
01:05:21
Speaker
ah yeah um We're jumping into the dull knives now, but like, but this is a quick question. Do we ever understand why some of these people have visions of the future? now even though they have season had That is my, daughter so the character of Aiden, Naomi Watts son, few dull knives there. First,
01:05:37
Speaker
He calls his mother by her first name but for the full movie. Doesn't make no sense, but okay. Yeah. Do you have any friends that did that to their parents and like, we're serious about it growing I think you only do it when you're trying to get on your parents' nerves. Dude, my mom hates it.
01:05:50
Speaker
Exactly. Barbie is the, look, Barbie is a fun name to say. I don't know. She doesn't understand how hard it is for me not to say Barbie, but I use it selectively if I'm trying to get under a scanner. Wait, still, like to this day, are you strategic? and life So what's the last time you did it? I don't know. Oh, I'm sure I was just with my mom for the 4th of July holiday in Vail last weekend. So it's been within a week. So like she like took the last hot dog or something and you're like, no, it's more so like, hey, mom, mom. Oh, she's not listening. Susie.
01:06:19
Speaker
Oh, did you get her attention? Yeah, exactly. um but So Aiden, they make him an intentionally weird kid. you You're alerted to that very early with him calling his mom by... I just want to get out in the front and say this.
01:06:33
Speaker
Pro Aiden, by the way, like the performance. yeah Oh, and you know what? I completely forgot how to bring this up. We brought up and bring her back our creepy kids list. So I think when we last spoke, it was bring her back, the exorcist, the omen, children of the corn, the orphan, pet cemetery, and hereditary.
01:06:50
Speaker
We completely forgot to add Aiden for the ring. Or Samara. wong And Samara. Honestly, I was more creeped out by Aiden and Samara in this film. It looks like he hadn't slept in weeks. Yeah, it's a dual entry for the ring. so So they make him a weird kid.
01:07:03
Speaker
He's doing weird drawings. He's having premonitions. hes He has some supernatural ability, which I just felt like, did that play a role in the movie? Like, is he supposed to be connected to Samara some way? Well, it's not just him, though, because the friend...
01:07:18
Speaker
Also, is she puts her fingers down and makes the four, like the friend of the niece who got killed. She's in the sideboard. So she had some premonitions as well. I think that if you're just in the vicinity of this weird shit happening, that like the curse or Samara's spirit can affect you in different ways.
01:07:37
Speaker
I guess that must be it. That's my only explanation. And I think they could have made... the film with Aiden just being a normal kid. Like, I don't think it would substantially change much of the film at all.
01:07:49
Speaker
If he wasn't super, I just liked, I liked him being creepy because I'm always like, what's this little weird fucko going to say next? I'm like, what are you going he's like fixing his tie. Like that was one one of the most disturbing parts I saw. He's like, his like Naomi wants like half naked, like, Oh, where is my this or that? And just like, she's like got panties on and like, he's in full view of her. And he's like,
01:08:10
Speaker
your dress is on the couch, dear. And he's like fixing his tie. like, I'm like, bro, you're fucking weird, but I like it. It's a conundrum. Oh, by the way, I really liked how they handled Noah being like a non-dad. Like they could have made that so much sappier and like, I just, ah couldn't be there for you, son. But like they lightly address it. It's not a huge deal.
01:08:36
Speaker
Uh, i it feels to me there is some echo of themes about um unrequited love like ah the mother who adopted Samara just wanted to her to love her but Samara is too busy being a little freaky chick and like the this kid is like I'm sure if he even needs his dad's love but like a lot of like weird parental kid stuff and I think that they could have hit the nail over the head with this, like abandonment issues or, ah you weren't ready to have a child, but now it's coming back to kill you. And it's just like, these are weird moments in the car, but it's kind of feels kind of did that well. Yeah.
01:09:09
Speaker
It's a sharp knife. So to speak, it's a sharp knife. Um, one other dull knife outside of Aiden, they, uh, go to the Morgan's farm And they end up in the barn where they finally discovered this is where they raised Samara. She lived in the barn.
01:09:23
Speaker
They find that ladder from the video and it goes to this lofted area, like at least 20 feet up in the barn. Presumably she's been dead for over 20 years now at this point. And they get up to her little room.
01:09:35
Speaker
There's a toy carousel just still spinning around up there. I'm like, this thing hasn't been running for over 20 years. Really? Really? Has it? They don't make it like they used to. Yeah.
01:09:46
Speaker
So when I saw that, it looked like a room that someone was just in hours earlier, not heavy dust collection or anything like that. Just very well maintained apparently for the last decades. Well, if Samara is into like...
01:09:59
Speaker
you know dead body art and she's like fucking around with crime scenes maybe she goes and like messes with her old room and like oh this will be creepy when that she's just like she's like cranking the the thing so that it's like thought you were taking the direction she's just really into like good housekeeping like uh marie kondo keeping very tight ah she might be i'm just saying she futzes she we we know for sure that she futzes with these the crime scenes of her killing so who's to say that she doesn't have a you know uh a like a good eye for feng shui in her room when she's not haunting people through the videotapes she's uh making horses commit suicide moving bodies around and cleaning her room right that's that's what the afterlife is for hey creepy kid villains they're just like us
01:10:48
Speaker
Yeah. All right. I only had one dull knife and that was... ah So no nobody like, so these four close friends, they all separately die on the same day and nobody thought to like do a piece on that. Like yeah the cops aren't like, oh this is fucking weird. All right. Like brina the, she, the one girl dies in the opening, the other two die in a car and the other one dies in like a, maybe a cabiners. I don't know, but all four of them die at 10 PM.
01:11:18
Speaker
like It sounds like, you know Maybe you'd have to tie a few strings together to connect them, but it sounds like they're all in the same area, maybe even same high school. This would be lot hugely shocking if four kids all from the same school died at the same time on the same day.
01:11:33
Speaker
An unrelated incident. All respect to Nemi Watts and all respect to to ah women journalists. women journalists ah The future is female. But I didn't think Nemi Watts was the one that would like really crack a case. like Not your best inspector gadget here. like yeah and I didn't think she was like anything special as far as a journalist goes. And she figured it out within like...
01:11:58
Speaker
I don't know, two days? Less than seven days. yeah
VHS Nostalgia and Cultural Impact of J-Horror
01:12:02
Speaker
Less than seven days. Maybe she was just ahead of the curve on linking these deaths together where the other journalists needed the extra day or two. they They were not as time pressed as she was on her seven day timer.
01:12:13
Speaker
um All right. Are we ready for winner winners and losers? Yeah. All right. Yeah. I i only had one. Well, yeah. Start with yours then. Mine was going to be VHS tapes, all right? They're already on the out. I like that on winners as well. This was like a lot, a swan song for VHS tape.
01:12:29
Speaker
On the way out as V as DVDs are coming in, it's like one last goodbye. We're going to make you a central piece of the, of the film. So it's like a mascot. I had it as winner. Okay. This movie doesn't work.
01:12:41
Speaker
If it's DVDs, if it's made a few years later, you don't get the static and the snow and the weird splice cuts in the, in the, film itself, like the VHS tape itself. Yeah, analog is just a different beast. was one last reminder of how great VHS was. I just love putting in the VCR and the clicking sound and then like, you know, it taught us responsibility too. When I get out of my bed, feel better when I make the bed.
01:13:07
Speaker
Well, when i take out a VHS, I feel good when I'm like, oh, I have to um have to rewind it, put it back in, rewind it. There's like some responsibility there. DVD, you just put it in the case.
01:13:18
Speaker
you know we're not... yeah kids aren't learning. I only had one other winner, which we've already touched on Japanese horror films. I think this was, um, you know, the first, uh, big name kind of adaptation that we brought over to the U S and then it opened up a pipeline for the next few years of many more J horror films. J horror. Yeah. Well, like a comeback to like, because Japanese horror in the, not even just normal, uh, Kaidan stories, but like many types of sub genres of Japanese horror,
01:13:47
Speaker
killing it in the 50s 60s 70s but yeah as a being remade though as it now US films oh oh yeah yeah so J horror in the US definitely that Japan to US pipeline um so I have that as a winner okay few losers one we've touched on this one as well but what a rough movie for horses horses are you know yeah committing suicide in masses.
01:14:11
Speaker
um We're seeing them actively commit suicide. I thought they were just taking naps on the beach. yeah A lot of horse tests. probably Probably the most horse tests mentioned off screen in a horror film any film really. RIP to the horses, man.
01:14:26
Speaker
um Another loser, Noah's girlfriend. She plays a small role. I i forget the actress's name. She's on NCIS, but... Like here she is. She's finding out that her boyfriend is kind of palling around with his ex-wife.
01:14:40
Speaker
And the next time she'll find him at the very end of the film. And the next time she'll find him at the very end of the film, Naomi Watts sees her going up to the apartment where she has just witnessed Noah's dead body link up there. Instead of maybe giving the girlfriend a heads up, she's just like, nah, let her.
01:14:54
Speaker
Let her walk in on it, discover it fresh for herself. Do you think that was more personal or practical? Like what I wondered about that choice too. Was she just sticking it to the younger girl or what? Yeah. I mean, was she afraid that she's going to think she's part of a crime scene or. Yeah. Maybe she's just wanted to flee the scene. Not keep playing. She looks at the blood on her Kleenex. Courtesy though. Like again, Naomi Watts being a dick with that horse and then not at least know his girlfriend a heads up that his dead body's up in their apartment.
01:15:20
Speaker
So do you think when, when they figure out at the end of the movie that, Oh, you can save yourself, but you have, you have to make a copy of the tape, which is why she pushes her kids, Aiden's hands on the buttons. Like he has to make the copy and that's how you pass it on.
01:15:35
Speaker
Do you think they showed it? Like they're trying to get her to watch it. The girlfriend, vegan she's the next, mean, who else? Because the only, the grumpiest person other than the movie already shocked himself to death in the bathtub.
01:15:47
Speaker
It's kind of like good fellows. Like you got to wrap up all the loose ends. So maybe just take
Critiques and Directorial Skill in 'The Ring'
01:15:51
Speaker
care of her. I mean, she's going to be freaking out about him looking like a sour patch kid in the chair. So. Yeah.
01:15:58
Speaker
Yeah. and One other, one other loser. um HIPAA patient confidentiality. Yeah. Noah is getting a lot of medical records and individual medical records he has no business getting. he tune he's a dude is the do who play easily The black guy at the second one, who was just like, he basically was like, Hey, you're not that guy, but as long as you treat me with respect, I'll get you what you need. He didn't ask for money. yeah he didn't call the cops.
01:16:27
Speaker
Like, but Is he just like being the master of his domain and like, hey, just play with my rules. But like, what are the rules? Like you come and ask me politely. I'll let you watch some fucked up like patient videos.
01:16:39
Speaker
Right. That was that was silly. But um yeah, that's that's it for my winners and losers. um So our last category moving on to our screen. This hard or queen. This is really hard.
01:16:51
Speaker
Because can I keep, I have three and can I just tell you my thought process? Because sure before pod, during pod and towards the end of the pod, I've convinced myself that three different people are going to win.
01:17:03
Speaker
All right. So at first it was Samara um because i think she is like the character is the most iconic thing to ah leave this movie. Like, yeah,
01:17:19
Speaker
It's you see people dressed up in Halloween and it's it's like it's part of horror iconography now. Clearly girl coming out of a well out of a TV even adding another winner based on that. that We should mentioned hair hanging in front of the face like that wasn't really a horror thing until this movie.
01:17:36
Speaker
Yeah, very makes that a very scary thing. And then I got to thinking, well, you know who's really holding this movie together is Naomi Watts. Like, maybe we didn't think lightning was going to strike twice. She killed it in Mulholland as like a frazzled, scared woman, ah but also trying to find her agency.
01:17:54
Speaker
She's doing the same thing here, but different. Really like her performance. But the more we've talked about the production notes and the creative choices and then going off to the ah top the top three largest franchise of all time and pirates of the Caribbean. It's hard not to say Gore Verbinski.
01:18:12
Speaker
Yeah. ice cream king here That's where I got to, um, is Gore Verbinski as well. Again, I don't always want to default to director, uh, but the man had the Midas touch with his first few feature films he made and parlayed these first three. Especially Malzahn.
01:18:26
Speaker
to make Yeah, especially Malzahn to make Pirates of the Caribbean. And I said this earlier, but it's like, this is one of those movies, even if you're not like ah an aficionado of like trying to parse out what makes good directing. I think even the layman can understand that he elevates a fairly traditional script into something really special and evocative and, and atmospheric,
01:18:51
Speaker
and he is a masterclass in like why directors are not slaves to the script. Their job is to take a script as a source and like do something different and unique with it.
01:19:03
Speaker
And it's not just sticking to what's on the paper and half the stuff he did, I'm sure was not even the script. the The script is not saying, Oh, take the camera and move it over here and have this color this way. It's like, he is making choice after choice that I was really blown away by.
01:19:17
Speaker
Yeah. And again, to think about, At this point in his career, he's relatively unknown. He's had two movies, but isn't a super highly regarded director. He uses a relatively unknown cast as well, and he makes a horror movie.
01:19:31
Speaker
And to turn that into one of the best box office successes of the year is incredible because he he wasn't dealt many great cards, and he was able to parlay that into one of the best performing horror films of all time.
01:19:43
Speaker
this would lead into one of our favorite podcasts category, the rewatchables, his apex had to have been after the first pirates. I would assume. Yeah. I think that was, that he does the one punch um to get into, to get into a, a basically blank check franchise, which then was it's undoing. Cause it truly was like two of the most expensive movies of all time ever made.
01:20:09
Speaker
yeah, Yeah, he's on his way to the apex from going. Yeah, this is how he secured pirates was this movie. So that's why i'd give him the MVP as well. He did such
Episode Wrap-Up and Teaser for Next Episode
01:20:18
Speaker
a great job with this that it makes sense why he was given that job ah shortly hereafter. Awesome. Well, I think that's it for us. um Well, I'm sure we'll have plenty of edits to make in post. How is the ring to this is almost long as the movie.
01:20:36
Speaker
Yeah, I think we are almost to the running time here. So we'll we'll get this down and post to try to get closer to that hour mark. um Next week, we are covering Megan 2.0. No, we're not covering Megan.
01:20:47
Speaker
We going to Barbarian. um And in as we await the new movie coming out this year, Weapons, by the same director, Zach Kregger, Zach Kregger.
01:21:01
Speaker
So we're gonna watch barbarian preparation for that, which only came out a few years ago, but is one heck of a scary movie as well. So we will get to that next week from all of us here at the Sunday scaries.
01:21:11
Speaker
Thank you guys for listening. Please subscribe rate review. we We have so few of these lately will personally note if you have reviewed or subscribed to our podcast. and this Everyone is noted.
01:21:24
Speaker
thank you guys for listening. Bye.