A couple of teenage
girls named Katie Embry (Amber Tamblyn)
and Becca Kotler (Rachael Bella) spends
the night at a cabin in the mountains and
enjoying themselves but one of them tells
the other about this mysterious legend on
a tape that's played and after watching
it as well as receiving a telephone call
with a voice saying "you will die in
seven days." Suddenly this incident
happens to poor Katie as a journalist in
Seattle named Rachel Keller (Naomi
Watts), whom is the aunt of Katie, tries
to investigate this mysterious videotape
but somehow this videotape seems to
effect her and her son Aidan (David
Dorfman) as their lives are at stake so
Rachel must find a way to try and cheat
their death after spotting the deaths on
the tapes to others who haven't yet been
dead.
Rachel also experiences nose bleeds and
terrible nightmares to top it all off
which is the whole curse on what happens
to anyone who has watched the tape before
their fate.
The history on all this seemed to happen
to a poor child named Samara Morgan
(Daveigh Chase) whom was suffocated to
death by her mother and apparently her
body will never be put to rest.
We spot a nice beginning with two
teenage friends
Katie and Becca having fun and acting silly. There's a
good shot on Katie speaking
coldly and seriously about an incident
watching a video and after watching it
dying in a week which looked nice and
still.
We have a nice shot on Becca walking by a hallway and spotting a fuzzy
TV turning on with a nice close up shot
on her looking nervous as well as a good
shot on her running upstairs as well as a
good shot on some water on the ground
with her feet walking towards it and then
spotting another TV activating in her
room with her freaking out.
A good shot on Aidan Keller going near a staircase
as if something was calling to him and a
nice distant shot on the staircase with
him looking up.
We spot a nice brief discussion between Rachel Keller talking to someone named Ruth with her getting emotional
about it which looked strongly well done.
We also spot a nice flashback scene on a
corspe which almost makes you jump during
this moment too.
A good closing in shot on Rachel as well as a shot on a shelf full of VHS
tapes and her looking at them.
We spot a good moment with her going in a cabin and watching a VHS tape
and her being glued to the set with good
shots on the TV on some tragic events and
her looking a little nervous while this
is all happening. We also spot a nice
shot on some sun and clouds zooming by
near a tree with the tree changing color.
A nice panicked reaction on her
after watching the whole tape as well as
a phone ringing with her getting freaked
out about it all.
There's alot of energetic moments with her by trying to search for clues after what she
saw on the VHS tape with good close up
shots on papers she's reading and other
types of informantion.
A nice discussion between Rachel and Becca with her holding her hand and
softly trying to speak to her while Becca herself looking like a basket case and weakly tries
to answer. The setting looked nice giving
it a darkness type of feel to the
scenario.
There's a good moment with Rachel starting to choke and cough with a nice
close up shot on her coughing out some
black string.
A nice shot on Aidan staring at the TV with the VHS tape
playing and Rachel running in and
screaming in fright for him and trying
anything to prevent him from watching it
as well as getting paranoid with her
phone ringing.
We spot a nice shot with Rachel on
a ferry ride and trying to pet a horse in
the back kennel vehicle showing a nice
close up on the horses face. There's many
terrific shots on the horse panicking and
escaping running around the ferry parking
lot jumping over vehicles with Watts
running near the edge of the ferry and
the horse jumping over and into the water
panicking which looked totally disturbing
since the makers didn't miss a moment with his work on all
of this. There's also a good close up
shot on a girl on ferry screaming with a good
terrified expression after what she
spots.
A nice shot on a land near a lake
with mist with a discussion between Rachel and a doctor giving out information on a
certain subject and a good moment with her almost getting anxious after what she
hears and asking about what was said.
Good shot on her looking at something in a house with a
supporting character Richard Morgan coming up from behind her and knocking
her down. Next we have a good twisted
moment with him hooking himself
to some plug and other kinds of
electricity while a bathtub is overflown
with water and him messing around with it
and acting demented about everything. It
really makes you wonder why he's doing
all of this and looking believeably
dangerous.
We spot a good distant shot between Noah Clay and Rachel on a
top step of a barn and discovering
something behind some wall paper with
them tearing it off and using a hammer to
smash through it as well as smashing open
a brick ground. Then we have many good
takes on them spotting a well and looking
down which looked nicely done showing it
dark and deep. A good close up
shots on some nails from a wooden floor
rising up and then a TV knocking her down the well as that was a great gasping
moment with a shot on him screaming
for her.
We spot a nice flashback moment with Anna Morgan coming up to her daughter and
wrapping a plastic bag over her head
which looked disturbing.
There's a good serious discussion between Aidan with Rachel and a good freaky
serious expression telling her about the
child and the dangers that are still
happening.
There's a moment with Noah after spotting a
TV turning on and then Samara walking from the TV screen and charging
towards him and then good suspenseful
shots on him backing up and crashing over
things along with a nice close up shot on
her showing an expressionless glance
which looked even creepier.
Bottom line is that this film was very
interesting as it was very much like
those other supernatural ghostly type of
horror flicks like White Noise
and Pulse but however
the story sometimes goes stale due to
it's time lenght and seemeed a little
overly long. What saves this flick from
being just average was some of the
jumping and haunting moments with the TV
activating and the phone ringing knowing
that something deadly will happen. Also a
good creepy moment when the film is near
it's end with the ghostly child coming
out of the TV screen and ready to attack
as it looks extremely chilling too.
Basically most of the cast members had
small roles in the film except for three
people but again most of these types of
horror flicks centers around a small
cast. The film became a horror classic and was
very talked about. However, it didn't do
a heck of alot for me since I've seen
better like I mentioned before. It was
still well done with the good effects
taking place and definetely not a low
budgeter by any means.
The acting was not
too bad as lead actress Naomi Watts
(Rachel Keller) really brought out her character and
putting it all together on what she had
to do with her anxious emotions and
aggreassions too along with her demanding
behavior to top it all off. She showed
alot of good charisma into her role.
Martin Henderson (Noah Clay) on the other hand
didn't seem to pull so much of his weight
as he seemed too wooden. He did show good
expressions through certain parts of the
story though but that's not saying a heck
of alot. I can't see him going places. Yet he showed a good freaked out expression
after spotting a
TV turning on during a certain part of the story.
Child actor David Dorfman (Aidan Keller) showed
alot of characteristics as the little boy
in the flick showing the odd serious
attitude and did it terrifically. He is a
natural talent I must say and was a good
key to the plot and made sure he stood
out. He seemed like that type of role
like in The Omen or a
supernatural horror flick of that type.
The rest of the cast's roles weren't very
big but I will try to review their
talents as much as I can:
There's a great presence by child actress
Daveigh Chase (Samara) with her long
black hair and totally looking like a
ghostly child and does well acting like
she's dead. She did well throughout her
performance.
We have many echoey cold
sounding piano music for the silent
moments in this film along with some
windy sound effects for the spooky
moments with the odd banging and
thumping. Plus, we have some good deep
violing playing too. The music was
composed by Hans Zimmer
Harvey:
You're fired.
Rachel Keller: No, I'm not.
Harvey: Yes, you are.
Rachel Keller: No, I'm not! I'm
cooking too good a story.
Rachel
Keller: He watched the tape.
Noah: Who? who watched it?
Rachel Keller: Our son
Cashier:
You're gonna die.
Noah: Huh?
Cashier: My uncle smoked a pack a
day for ten years, went on the patch,
never looked back.
Aidan
Keller: What happened to the girl?
Rachel Keller: Samara?
Aidan Keller: Is that her name?
Rachel Keller: Mm-hmm.
Aidan Keller: Is she still in the
dark place?
Rachel Keller: No. We set her
free.
Aidan Keller: You helped her?
Rachel Keller: Yeah.
Aidan Keller: Why did you do that?
Rachel Keller: What's wrong,
honey?
Aidan Keller: You weren't supposed
to help her.
Aidan
Keller: [to Rachel] Don't you
understand, Rachel?
[his nose starts bleeding]
Aidan Keller: She never sleeps. |