u/SSF415

Every day for 30 days I'm watching a different scary movie, this year all about urban legends.

Whatever form media takes, someone conceives of a story where that media turns out to be evil, haunted, possessed, or in some other way ooky-spooky.

In 1991, horror writer Koji Suzuki gave us “Ring,” a story about a cursed VHS tape (not to be confused with Brad Miska, who gave us the cursed “VHS” franchise), which has spawned multiple film adaptations, including this American version in 2002.

Keeping with our urban legends theme, the story starts with a rumor: “Have you heard about this videotape that kills you when you watch it?”

These days, digital video means that the only reason a recording remains obscure is because the potential audience is too busy watching pregnant Elsa videos, or, if that reference is now dated, deep dive retrospectives about pregnant Elsa videos. None of those kill you, but they did make me wish they had.

The tape in this movie really does kill the viewer though, and because it’s physical media it must pass on from victim to victim the old-fashioned way, uphill through the snow both ways. So reporter Naomi Watts sets out to find the tape, uncover its history, and avert the curse…perhaps.

“The Ring” today feels very much of its time, being deeply invested in its plot and with less attention spent on character pathos and meaty opportunities for the cast to show off their acting chops, as a modern haunting film would be.

There definitely IS an emotional core to the movie, with Watts reconnecting with her ex (TV actor Martin Henderson) and connect-connecting with her seemingly comatose son (David Dorfman, who these days is a congressional attorney, a job that’s presumably much scarier than any of the movies he made in his lost youth). But it’s very much not the primary focus of the film.

Speaking of Dorfman…let’s just say law school was a smart call for this kid. He didn’t ruin the movie for me, but that’s mainly because the movie gave us real reason to believe he might die, and I took comfort in that the same way some people turn to prayer or substance abuse during trying times.

Gore Verbinksi has just come off of the picaresque crime rom-com “The Mexican.” With any other director I might question the move from screwball comedy to the incredibly depressive story and look of “The Ring,” but Verbinski is basically Hollywood’s Instacart director, picking up whatever you need.

I don’t say that dismissively: “The Ring” is tight and fun, and while it’s pretty light on scares compared to modern horror films with similar profiles, well, it really only needs that ending to pull its weight…

“The Ring” kicked off a trend in American remakes of East Asian horror movies. And if you’ve read this far, you know exactly where that trend went next. More on that tomorrow.

Original Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yybjV3U68wc

A slightly closer look at the evening's altar. I shared photos of the performances and ritual here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/SatanicTemple_Reddit/comments/1vgrcss/drag_me_to_hell_the_devils_coming_july_30_san/

This was Rosa and Tabitha's drag/burlesque (either or both, depending on the performer) tribute to Mary MacLane.

200 Channels is a little club built in what was a longtime porn arcade on Sixth Street (thus the name--the sign advertising "200 Channels" is still visible on the outside), and they added additional seating twice after sellouts for this, so it was a very successful outing. Photo by Joseph Niles.

BTW don't worry, there's a competing porn arcade just on the other side of Mission that's still there--in case the closure bummed you out. There's also a really good Vietnamese restaurant on the other corner and I don't know how they've stayed open on Sixth for as long as they have but Asmodeus' blessings upon them.

Rosa and Tabitha did this photo shoot as promotional material for our Thursday ritual and show, I thought folks might get a kick out of them.

If anyone's curious, the full quote (translated by Richard Scott) is, "The soul is so invisible a thing, often useless and sometimes so troublesome, that I did not experience, as to this loss, more than that kind of emotion I might have, had I lost my visiting card in the street."

But we usually edit the full thing down to fit the image without obscuring too much of the art, and sometimes for clarity.