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| The Japanese films and their American counterparts both strive to chill us with various forms of terror, however, sometimes one movie pulls it off better then its counterpart. In the Japanese film, Ringu, the idea of a killer video tape is expressed eloquently, however, the other possibilities for inducing fear are even further exploited in the American remake, The Ring. Ringu and The Ring follow the same plot for the first half of the movie, some of the scenes are even directly copied, but they break apart towards the middle of the film. In The Ring, the main character works to unravel the mystery of the killer video tape--which in the Japanese version, seems to play a far less important roll--the character goes through each respective scene from the tape and discovers how it is connected with the girl that appears at the end of the tape crawling out of a well. The approach ultimately helps to increase the sense of suspense, and allows for The Ring to appeal to an audience that is not only looking for a cheap thrill, but also a mystery. In the American movie, The Grudge, the director chose to keep with the original film, Ju-On, and have the movie take place in Japan. However, he hired American actors and placed them unsuccessfully into the Japanese setting. The only thing that this even slightly adds to is the thought that only Americans could possibly be stupid enough to buy and attempt to live in a haunted house. In Ju-On, instead of following just one main character, the movie is divided up into segments, where each one is named after the individual that will die in the upcoming segment. In this way, the audience is able to follow the curse as it affects, and eventually kills, everyone that enters the house. The Ring, for its ingenuity at conveying a mystery as well as a horror story is by far the better of the two films, and Ju-On is the better of the two, because of the creativity that it employs in following the curse, instead of an individual. |