DirkH’s review published on Letterboxd:
Part of Dastardly Difficult December: film nr.51
The circumstances in which you watch a film always influence the way you experience it.
I had avoided this remake because I feel the original Ringu is a prime example of what good horror should be. It had a visual aesthetic now so often seen in J-horror and it was creepy as hell. In my mind the Hollywood remake machine could never even approach it.
Cut to me sitting on my couch at 2 at night, deciding what to watch to cure a nasty bout of diaper changing induced insomnia. I decided to watch this. I have said so before, but I'll say it again, I am a moron.
I cannot objectively state if this film is really as good as the rating I've given it, but it certainly reflects what it did to me. It freaked me out completely and certainly didn't help with the insomnia.
What I can say is that I loved Verbinski's refusal to make this a cheap J-horror knock off. It is an American horror film all the way and that transition is done surprisingly well.
It does, as so often is the case, lose the plot in the third act, but what came before it is tense, very creepy and at certain points insufferably scary.
One of the better horror remakes out there.