Ring 0 - Birthday

Okay, pop quiz time...

Question: “Ring 0 is about what?�
A. The first cursed marriage of Elizabeth Taylor.
B. A cursed video that kills anyone who watches it.
C. A cursed telephone that doesn’t accept coins?
D. None of the above.

If you selected D, you’re right! If you think I’m wrong and that the answer should be B, because the Ring films are about the cursed video, you’re wrong. This film isn’t about the video, it’s about what, or who, is behind the cursed video. The video isn’t even mentioned. This story is set in the '60s, and video wasn’t even around way back then. Ask your parents, kids!

This film tries valiantly to go back to the origin of the cursed tape, and is about the one and only loveable Sadako. Far from the bone-popping, hair-hanging, fish-eyed ghoul we’ve come to know and despise, Sadako was once just your average girl. Well, maybe not average unless the average person sees dead people and has a psychically connected evil inner twin who’s still a child and can kill with a thought.

So, this nice Sadako, the product of a killer psycho/psychic mum and a reasonably normal good dad, is trying to find some normality in her life, so she joins up with a drama troupe.

FLASHDANCE! Everyone wants to Flashdance! I can't stand it anymore!

Yep, if you have mental issues, hang out with actors, that’ll fix your problems. Riiiiight. Soon, strange things begin occurring to the troupe, and the finger is pointed at Sadako as the culprit. The truth is more bizarre than they (or we) could ever imagine though. The truth about Sadako’s identity, her battle between good and evil and the mystery of the well is soon revealed.

But for those of you expecting more of the same from the first film, you may or may not be disappointed, depending on how adaptable you can be with the weight of expectation. See, it’s more a slow eerie drama story for the majority of the time, feeling almost like a made for television soapie/drama at times. Also, it plays out the revelations more like an episode of The X-Files than a film trying to come full circle, with just as many unanswered questions as there are answered ones, and still a fair bit of the history left untouched.

The “slowly, slowly� aspect of the film is effective, but possibly a little trying at times, and it’s only when we get near the end that things come to a head. The drama troupe, scared and

They simply couldn't stand the thought of another Ray Martin Special.

angry, try to take matters into their own hands while Sadako gives up her own inner/outer fight, and then the film steps back into the realm of the more expected scary, spooky, shreiky-noised kill-a-thon.

Ring 0 is effective in its own right, with just a few small minor sit-up incidents peppering the film, but nothing which is designed to have you crapping yourself in your chair and peeking out from between your fingers. It’s an interesting and courageous turn of style to make a change from the cycle so far, and more incredibly it even manages to make you sympathise with Sadako and hate the normal people who go after her, even if she does later on go on to be the stuff of nightmares.

I’m happy to say that Ring 0 is absolutely nothing like what I expected, but is a solid film in its own right, and deserves a look in if you want to finalise the trilogy.

If you've seen the other Ring films, then this is more of the same, and a little better, still with heavy and oppressive blacks which absolutely swallow up all detail contained in them, but this time the blacks are inkier rather than slightly washed out. Also, between the grain and the compression the more intricate detail struggles to strike up a rough balance, and then when it has to cope with motion it doesn't do too well sometimes. This is visible in the patterns on clothing, such as stripes. Stationary, they will seem generally fine, but the slightest motion tends to blur them. The same goes for facial detail, in fact fine detail on almost anything that moves. The encoding also seems to have trouble with some scenes, with faces being the biggest culprit. Whether this is a result of trying to squeeze it all on a single layer I’m not sure, but a bit of loosening up of the compression would have helped.

Playing out in such a low key way, the audio takes a comfortable backseat for most of the trip. Being just a stereo mix doesn't really do it any harm at all, with the freakier sounds accompanying the spooky things still sounding wet-your-pants enough for me. For the majority though, you have little to listen to other than the characters, and there's not even much of what you would call a score. You might be a bit more aware of the lack of surrounds when the scenes shift to the sea, or there's rain and such and the room fails to fill with the sounds of the environment, but in context of the film it's not a problem, with the opposite effect that the quietness can often be more chilling in its effectiveness, particularly a very effective quiet stretch near the end.

Also, this time unlike with Ring and Ring 2, we have subtitles which are player generated, not burnt in. This makes reading them much easier than before, and they can obviously be switched off if you can understand Japanese, which is the only supplied language track.

There's not a whole bunch in here, but none of the Ring DVDs so far have had any better.

There's a Stills Gallery with just six images to look at. What was the point, exactly? It's not like they're interesting images anyway. A very brief Filmography for one actor, one writer and one director. A Ring Cycle Trailer which is for all three films running as one single trailer. Madman Propoganda, which has trailers for: Hellsing, Samsara, Spirited Away, Vampire Hunter D and Wendigo. And finally, one Easter Egg, which you can find out how to access by visiting our Easter Egg Department for more info.

A different and yet compelling final chapter to the Ring cycle, this will confuse some, anger some, please some and scare some. The films have worked up something akin to cult status, which means that Hollywood, now having remade the first film, will probably be on the lookout to destroy the rest of the series if they've made enough money. Here's hoping not, and that this series can now be left alone to be appreciated for what it is.