Thread by @Linkara19

My journey through Ring and Grudge movies is nearing its end. I've still got the Bunshinsaba stuff to watch, but now I must watch the crappy attempt to revive the franchise from 2016 that I've seen snippets of... RINGS.

Don't know how much livetweeting there will be since I want to try to get as much done with as possible here and focus on that work, but right away: like the more SLIGHT glitchy touches with the Paramount logo, and then zooming out of it on a plane TV.

"This is gonna sound weird, but you ever hear about the video that kills you after you watch it?"

I should really just go with that to get people to stop talking to me on a flight.

Hrrrm. Yeah. Airplane scene.

That was lame.

It feels like the reason why they suddenly cut away like that is that they didn't want to commit to answering some questions regarding this, like "Do the other passengers see Samara, or is it just the victim?" "Is Samara actually bringing down the plane or just a coincidence...

...since it seems like a pretty dick thing to do to kill people unrelated to the viewing?"

It starts off okay with the black water flowing, but then we have the cockpit door swinging open (yeah, that ain't gonna happen in a post-9/11 plane because of turbulence) and...

...she comes out of the cockpit monitor and he dies before she even gets close. Just rather meh and the interesting setup is wasted.

"Hi, I like to give the backstory of where this random junk from a flea market came from."

Soooo uh... It's been a while since I watched the American Ring, but I don't recall rain going backwards into the sky being a thing.

"You must only use this cursed tape for good."

https://twitter.com/MSipher/status/1404304731950907395?s=19

The shot with the window switching into the tape footage of the well is cool.

Nonsensical, but cool.

...is this just one of those cases where a good cinematographer got to direct a garbage script?

Also, why is the title HERE, 8 minutes in instead of right after the plane scene?

God, the dialogue is just off, like just in a way that makes it CLOSE to how people talk, but just awkward.

Yes. That's how I watch stuff while editing - pausing when I need to listen to the footage, unpausing when I don't (and in this case breaking for dinner)

https://twitter.com/adlerj/status/1404307660007038981?s=19

Also, this Robert Pattinson-looking dude who's the boyfriend of our lead is describing the Orpheus story as the most romantic story ever.

Some of you gave not seen @Phelous' and @AllisonPregler' review of "The Time Machine (That I Found at a Yard Sale)" and that is sad.

https://twitter.com/AlanPeterson97/status/1404306553285582848?s=19

Video distortion on the face during a Skype call is cute. Dialogue still sucks and we have had two fake-out jump scares.

Okay, so our main character - Julia - is played by an Italian model and actress... Aaand it shows. It's not evident in ALL her dialogue, but her accent comes through A LOT and it's very distracting when the character, as far as I can tell, isn't SUPPOSED to have an accent.

"Hey, other staff at the college? I want to set up a camera and TV outside the elevator with a copy of my research paper about ghost girls and cursed tapes. Is that okay?"

"Also, I want to set up, like, a coffee house for our research area studying the ghost girl and the cursed tapes which likely takes up a good chunk of the floor of this building."

As always, I must go back to my man Mitsuo about this:

"Careful where you step. I just painted the ceiling."

...you weren't home for a while. Why would it still be dripping wet? What crappy, watery paint did you use?

Okay, so Samara's first proper kill scene - this is one of the bits I watched on my own and it's decent. Answers the joke "What if you just turn the TV towards a wall or something?" The answer of course is "she'll still crawl out, just lift the tv as she does so."

Mind you, it looks like she's partly CGI during this and she really didn't need to be. The ingenious thing about the Samara/Sadako crawling out of the TV thing is that it's actually very easy to replicate:

Here's how it looks in this film to do the flat screen stuff from the ground, but the example above was working on a budget. A Hollywood movie could do it better and still fairly cheap, but instead it reeeaally looks CGI for a bit before looking practical:

As in, she's CGI for a minute, but then once she's fully out of the TV it switches to being a real person (at least I THINK it is).

Also, this is a minor thing but I wish, like in Sadako vs. Kayako, there was a bit where the well footage starts out in fullscreen and then expands to widescreen.

SAMARA: "Hey, this doesn't happen often but I need to use the bathroom. Let me in."

I wonder if the actress who played Samara in the American remake got residuals for this movie since they still use her voice.

Turns out the boyfriend is a British actor. HIS accent is slipping now, too. Look, if they were well known, high-profile actors I'd get thos, bur why cast virtual unknowns for these leads who can't hold the American accents?

Still watching bits and pieces while I edit. Julia's copy of the tape has new images added and they surmise based on the images that maybe Samara's remains need to be cremated.

Now here's the weird bit I just realized: they haven't said the name "Samara" once yet.

In fact, they have given NO explanation for the tape or why it does what it does or Samara's backstory. Maybe some future scenes will explain it, but it seems like this is a sequel that assumes everyone already knows all this stuff. They just suddenly say "That's where they...

...took the girl's remains" without having specifically mentioned any girl at all up to this point.

50 minutes in and they finally explain Samara and her backstory, adding in the mystery of why her remains were sent to this town they're going to after they found her in the well in the first movie.

By the by, small detail but I do like how in the remake the "seven days" thing is explained away as being how long she survived in the well, vs. Ringu/Ringu 2 where they say she was alive for THIRTY YEARS in there. Now, that's a powerful grudge and all, but surviving on...

...well water for thirty years? And injured? And the human body not really being designed to stay in water for HUGE periods of time? Yeah, that's a bit much.

Thanks for the umbrella jump scare, movie. It's a good sign that you don't trust your audience to be engaged in atmosphere when you feel the need to add a random stupid one like that in the middle of a mood-establishing scene.