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| Genre: | Horror |
| Year: | 2002 |
| Rating: | PG13 |
| Cast: | Gore Verbinski, Naomi Watts, Martin Henderson, David Dorfman |
A truly blood-chilling exercise in supernatural horror, this American remake of Hideo Nakata's 1998 Japanese cult classic depicts the inexplicable marriage of demonic malevolence and modern technology. The nightmarish tale gets underway as newspaper reporter Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts) investigates the bizarre fates of teenagers who have died exactly seven days after watching a certain videotape. Rachel watches the tape and pooh-poohs the idea that it might be cursed -- until her young son (David Dorfman) starts making eerie drawings similar to those produced by the victims just days before they died. Despite the occasional plot hole -- suspension of disbelief is a given in horror, anyway -- screenwriter Ehren Kruger crafts a spine-tingling story that is visualized splendidly by director Gore Verbinski, who establishes a sinister, melancholy mood early on and sustains it through the excruciatingly tense final reel. This isn't really an actor's movie, but Watts handles herself surprisingly well, making believable that which is patently unbelievable. She gets able support from Brian Cox (playing a lonely old man whose past sins have a bearing on the present carnage) and Martin Henderson, who is extremely winning as the video geek who helps Rachel analyze the deadly tape. This ambitious little thriller isn't always logical, but it's relentlessly creepy, and that's a quality you always want in a horror movie. Ed Hulse
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