A Reaction To The New RINGS Trailer

We want to welcome a new contributor to our site today, her name is Amber and she is a horror fan through and through. We met Amber at a preview of The Neon Demon and have gotten to know her better at each subsequent screening. She is truly passionate about horror and we are happy to have her aboard. Amber was a big fan of the original The Ring film and upon watching the new trailer felt compelled to express her thoughts. So here they are:


After watching the Rings trailer that I have been seeking out since I first believed it was being released in November 2015, all I can say is: WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?

What happened to the simple story? To sharing a VHS in secret? To not actually knowing whether seven days was a legit death sentence? To eerie one-on-one action between Samara and her victim?

Before I further harass this trailer, let me give the quick trailer synopsis.

A woman looks frightened because of her TV.  She rips her flat screen out of the wall and Samara is on her way to disfigure her face. (All of that was sick.) Then another girl watches a link she got from an email. Her boyfriend tells her about this video that kills you seven days later. She receives a generic #sevendays call and then her hand is seared by her landline phone.  The trailer takes us through seven days where we learn about her curiosity of Samara, the meaning of the mark, Samara stalking her, and the growing obsession of The Ring.  It concludes with an airplane experiencing extreme turbulence while showing TVs of the infamous well. A young man is being dragged by an entity to the front of the plane and then sees “the ring.”

Sounds like maybe there is too much going on, correct? Now we have a ring mark on your back, hair coming out of your mouth, and a rebirth branded on your hand from a landline phone!?

I get it. They had to update Samara with the time change by sending the clip via email.  But can we note this chick still has a landline telephone? And now suddenly Samara brands all of her victims? Wasn’t it creepier when you thought maybe she was coming for you seven days later, but you weren’t sure? They are trying to connect Samara and this girl by potentially having Samara host herself in the girl’s body?  Why does she need this body? Why can’t she keep business the same way it has been? Is she not killing as many people as she would like? Why is this simple beautiful concept becoming so complicated it has already made the trailer unappealing to true Ring fans!?

If the trailer was not typical horror corniness enough (and I love me some beautiful, stereotypical horror), then the poster will disgust you. It looks nothing like its predecessors. Does not even feel like The Ring (which would be fine if this was a reboot, but it is a sequel).  The color pattern reminds me of The Ward or something more horror generic. Show me Samara. Show me a double ring. Show me water. Just please do not take an extremely pure and original concept and turn it mainstream to try to attract audiences with your rumored $33 million budget.

Ringu was pure Japanese originality.  The Ring certainly provided similarities to Ringu, but provided all of the scares on an American level.  The greatest part of watching remakes of Japanese horror is the upgraded effects.  Not that over-done CGI garbage, but the improvement of making a person actually disappear under the covers (The Grudge, 2004) instead of throwing the sheets over themselves (Ju-On: The Grudge, 2002).

Rings literally takes that CGI level to a fucking plane getting ambushed by Samara. Why!? Like Why!?

All I can hope for is the influence of the simple concept of the first movie and not the weird deer complicated mess of the second one.