The Ring (2002)

DIRECTOR: Gore Verbinski

CAST: Naomi Watts, Martin Henderson, Brian Cox, Amber Tamblyn

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE: Never.

DID I LIKE IT: It is an odd experience to take in a horror movie not in anticipation of some future podcast discussion, but this one has been a bit of a blind spot on my radar for a number of years.

The images are certainly evocative, I’ll give it that. And there’s a weird undercurrent of nostalgia to see a movie about a print journalist (Watts) fixated on a VHS tape. When she makes use of a payphone in at least one scene, it’s almost like watching a period piece.

But there’s one problem that may have as many as three explanations.

Those image might just be a bit too iconic. I’ve seen that little girl crawl her way out of that well so many times, there’s just no hope of surprise when I finally took it all in with context. I can imagine The Blair Witch Project (1999) will elicit similar response to the uninitiated, but this film doesn’t have anything resembling that earlier film’s unrelentingly unnerving last few minutes.

There may be just a bit too much bleakness in the film for the proceedings to ever really ramp up to genuine terror. Ari Aster has the same problem for me, although in his case it’s virtually impossible that misery porn buffet is not the filmmaker’s absolute intention.

On the other hand, my horror callus might be too rough for anything to ever properly hit a vein. It’s a reality that has to be confronted at some point. But then again there is the hope that the next film around the corner will manage to surprise. Unfortunately, this isn’t that film.

The whys are probably incidental. What we have here is a perfectly competently made film that failed to leave any kind of resonance, or draw out any kind of reflexive response from.

Manhunter (1986)

Director: Michael Mann

Cast: William Petersen, Tom Noonan, Dennis Farina, Brian Cox

Have I Seen it Before: Oh, sure. For years it was a curiosity: the Hannibal Lecter movie without Anthony Hopkins. However, I think I may have only come around to it after Hopkins last turn at the role, in Red Dragon (2002).

I had intended to wait to revisit this film until COVID got a little bit better and I could share it with a friend who is a confirmed Hannibal-phile (I think they prefer to be called Fannibals), but had never seen the film. COVID still rages, and I am right on the cusp of finally catching up on my to-watch DVDs... Something had to give. Sorry, pal... I’m totally fine to watch the movie again when we’re all on the other side of this. Damn virus...

Did I Like It: Many people love this film deeply, prizing it above The Silence of the Lambs (1991). There’s a lot to love about the movie, but I ultimately think that its strengths are tied to the source material. Even Brett Ratner couldn’t screw up this story. The loose adaptation in the recent TV series is some of the best television of the last ten years. This movie has the happiest, for lack of a better term, ending of all three adaptations, and that is just part of where it suffers relative to the other versions.

Here, though, I think the worst of Mann’s instincts got the better of him. The film is so aggressively fashionable and stylized that the film has no life outside of the 1980s. From the production design all through the music choices (“In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” anyone?) the film eschews any of the gothic trappings of the source material and is content to be just another serial killer movie with a dopey title.

Tom Noonan’s performance as Francis Dollarhyde doesn’t bring out the twisted, horrible sympathy of the character, and is just another aloof ‘80s weirdo in a movie filled to the brim with them. William Petersen’s attempt at a Will Graham is simply too histrionic in his meditations to be believable. Brian Cox, however, does bring a pugnacious irritation to Lecter (Lecktor in this film, for reasons passing any understanding) that only hints to the horrors at his core. It’s the most reserved version of the character, and the only thing to recommend it over others, not to take anything away from Hopkins or Mikkelsen.