The Ring Collection - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

The Ring Collection



Movie:
4K Video:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


WARNING: THE SCORES ABOVE ARE A COMBINED SCORE FROM ALL 3 FILMS, THE INDIVIDUAL SCORES ARE CONTAINED BELOW IN THE INDIVIDUAL SECTIONS OF THE REVIEW


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Movie
The Ring:
While the American remakes may not show it, The Ring franchise is one of the larger horror franchises out there, but you really have to be into Japanese films to get the meat of the story. Originally starting out as Japanese novels in the 90s, the franchise was quickly turned into a film over seas called Ringu, only to spawn 7 more sequels, 2 manga runs, and 3 remakes in Hollywood. Not bad for a dirt cheap little tale about a killer video cassette that murders people after watching huh?

The Ring is probably the most well known of the franchise outside of Ringu, and probably one of the best as well. It was atmospheric, cheaply shot, and has that gritty old timey late 90s/early 2000s feels of grit and creepiness to it. I can actually still envision the first time I saw the film circa 2005 or 2006. I was sitting in my best friend’s apartment watching it at the behest of (now) horror watching buddy who had introduced me and my best friend to it. We watched it on a whopping 27 inch computer monitor (we were all dirt broke and in our VERY early 20s at the time) and I still remember driving home and getting little glimpses of Samara in my back view mirror (I have an ADHD person’s imagination. A blessing and a curse).

Watching almost 18 or 19 years later and I really appreciate how well the film has held up. The sequels not as much, but The Ring still stands as a solid piece of atmospheric horror entertainment in the swill that was early 2000s horror films. The story itself is rather simple. Rachel (the gorgeous Naomi Watts) and her son Aidan (David Dorfman) come into contact with a mysterious VHS cassette that has been rumored to have made the rounds. And while this might have been a normal thing in the past, this particular cassette tape is a bit more sinister. Pop the tape in, watch it, and then 7 days later you die. Aidan and Rachel are mourning the loss of their cousin Katie (Amber Tamblyn) who committed suicide because of the tape, only for Rachel to start looking into the death of Katie, and soon into the all of the death’s that seem to float out there that are rumored to be linked to the tape. Bit by bit, piece by piece, Rachel uncovers the truth about the tape, and the twisted girl who comes out of the tape and kills you within 7 days, and what she finds may alter her life forever.

Director Gore Verbinski is much more of a psychological horror film rather than a physical or bloody horror film, and unlike the movie within this movie, doesn’t leave the audience terrified for their life. Honestly, it’s a big budget story about a journalist finding the tortured spirit of a dead girl and said dead girl’s attempts to interacting with the world at large after her death. It seems sweet and conclusive as well, wrapping up the Samara (the girl in the tape) story line quite nicely, only to pull the rug out from underneath us and once again leave the audience with that sort of unsettling feeling that comes from a good horror flick.

The Ring Two:
As is the case with most horror movie franchises, the sequel just doesn’t live up to the original (or, the original remake in this case). The first The Ring film from Gore Verbinski was impeccably shot, a solid psychological horror tale that could creep you out, and the perfect twisted ending. And just like clockwork, the sequel tries to run with that ending and just continue on the story and eventually burning it out. Coming back to the 2005 sequel after spending literally 15+ years never seeing it again, I have to say it. The Ring Two is not that bad. Sure, it’s not good either, but it’s a reasonable popcorn sequel that does a reasonable job introducing some thrills and twists along the way.

I’m going to say this right off the bat, don’t think too hard about The Ring Two. It’s one of those films that really benefits from checking your brain at the door and the door and simply being thrilled by a few jump scares. That being said, lets get into the nitty gritty. Six months after the events of the first movie (though Aidan has obviously aged several YEARS) both Rachel and Aidan are dealing with the aftermath of their decision to copy the tape and leave it at the video rental store for somebody else to pick up and pass on the curse. After an incident with some deer that shakes her, she decides to visit the farmhouse where the living Samara was mistreated and eventually died to find some answers.

One of the most charming (and most frustrating) realities about The Ring Two is that most of the film simply doesn’t make sense, and you need to be good with that going into the viewing. The deer, the psychic abilities of Aidan, and everything else make ZERO sense. About the only thing that DOES make sense is that Samara’s spirit is still out there and looking for vengeance, and this time wants to possess Aidan as a way to return to the land of the living. That’s it. The rest of the film is simply some interesting back story into Samara and her upbriging, as well as a creepy finale with Rachel having to be the one who defeats Samara and drives her back into her little “well” of terror at the end. Past that, I wouldn’t exactly go looking for answers from this one.

I’m not sure where things went wrong with this film, especially since it kept the main two actors returning to reprise the characters, and it was also directed by Hideo Nakata, who directed both Ringu and Ringu 2 over in Japan (both of which were solid films). I’m pretty sure that Hideo wanted to go with some more esoteric stuff but the producers may have tamped down on his creative vision a bit, so we get all of these visual allegories and moodey experiences (such as the deer), only for them to get lost in a typical Hollywood remake that keeps it from being as good as it COULD have been. Still, the movie itself is not bad despite the nonsensical nature of the plot, and I guilty pleasure watched the snot out of it when came out in on DVD years ago (this will be the first release of the film in Blu-ray or 4K since the DVD era).

Rings
While The Ring Two never got a Blu-ray release back in the day (which Scream Factory has now remedied) Paramount DID release the 2017 3rd film in the series, Rings, which I never got around to watching due to the fact that I never new it existed until the Scream press release announced the box set. Most sequels that are set over a decade after the original don’t exactly go well, let alone sequels that have zero of the main actors returning AND pretty much slide under the radar. AAAAAAAAAAND I was right. Rings is sadly barely connected to the 1st two films except in re-using many of the same old tired jump horror tropes and the same principal of people viewing the video cassette and being told they would die in 7 days. Sure, there’s a minor “twist” at the end that tries to set itself up for a 4th film, but at that point I think even the most hardened The Ring fan is going to have a hard time mustering up the effort to go see a 4th film (which was scrapped after the bad box office for Rings)

Julia (Matilda Lulz) gets woken up in the middle of the night from her boyfriend’s skype account. Turns out it’s not her boyfriend Holt (Alex Roe), but some girl that Holt knows named Skye (Aimee Teagarden). Turns out that Holt and Skye both decided on a dare to watch a mysterious tape that supposedly kills you after 7 days (oh, where have we heard this before?). Julia decides to help the pair by tracking down Holt’s college professor Gabriel (Johnny Galecki) who supposedly had picked up the VHS player and the tape in question from the family of a dead man who also “supposedly” died of Samara’s infamous tape. Now Julia, Holt, Skye and Gabriel all have to figure out what exactly is going on before it’s too late.

Yeahhhh, Rings follows the typical tale of the VHS tape that kills people, but without any of the fun or enjoyment of the previous two films. At this point we’re basically watching a DTV film that has almost nothing to do with its predecessors. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a competent enough film on it’s own, with green tinging to it that makes everything feel sickly and uneasy, but at it’s CORE, this is just not a really good Ring movie. Simply put, it’s formulaic, bland, and rather a let down for someone who at least ENJOYED the mediocre 2nd film.




Rating:

Rated PG-13 for thematic elements, disturbing images, language and some drug references / Rated PG-13 for violence/terror, disturbing images, thematic elements and some language / Rated PG-13 for violence/terror, thematic elements, some sexuality and brief drug material




4K Video: Video:

Once again, all 3 films looks similar ENOUGH for me to conglomerate all 3 films under one analysis for the video score. Both the 1st and 2nd movies have brand new scans from the original camera negatives in native 4K, while the 3rd film received a new 4K master as well. Supposedly Gore Verbinski oversaw the remastering process for The Ring, which is probably why it also looks the best out of the bunch. All three films are heavily stylized, with deep filters and dim lighting with some minor “haze” surrounding things. The first one notoriously has a blue/green filter that overlays the entire image, while the 2nd one forgoes the green and goes full BLUE BLUE BLUE to the core. Rings is the weirdest looking one of the bunch though, as it does the opposite of the 2nd film and gets rid of blue only to replace with a HEAVY green filter that makes everything looks sickly.

What’s amazing about the films is how much extra detail is eeked out through the new masters, especially the first two films. Fine details are incredible, allowing us to see every bit of black hair that Rachel coughs up, or the individual fibers on her jacket. The luscious greens of the farmhouse that they go visit really pop thanks to the HDR and Dolby Vision, but I did notice that the blacks tend to a crush a bit on all 3 films (something that seems to be part of the aesthetic rather than a problematic master. All in all, the three films look really really nice in 4K, with only the third one showing less of an improvement simply due to that sickly green grading and some extra haziness thrown in.






Audio:

Both the 1st and 2nd film gets a 5.1 DTS-HD MA track, (the 1st film’s track is a direct port from the old Blu-ray) and the 3rd film ports over Paramount’s 7.1 DTS-HD MA tracks. The 7.1 track is a minor upgrade over a 5.1 mix as you hear some creepy rear channel ambient noises, but overall all three tracks are fairly similar. Strong dialog up front, and holy cow, is the immersion of the listening position absolutely sublime. Gentle rain falls upon the sides, crashing as a building collapses down, or simply the creaking and snapping of Samara’s bones as she tries to scrabble up the well wall in the 2nd film. Bass is deep, guttural and really heavy most of the time, although there are some really quiet and dialog heavy portions of the film where we’re left listening to simple background noises in the mains and surrounds without a whole tone of power. I kinda would have loved to have seen what they could have done with an Atmos track, but Scream Factory’s ports of the 1st and 3rd movie are very solid, and the newly stuck 5.1 DTS-HD MA track for the 2nd one fits right in with the rest.









Extras:

The Ring
• NEW "Ghost Girl Gone Global"
• "Don't Watch This" – Collection Of Deleted Footage
• Rings – Short Film That Uncovers The Terrifying And Secret Connection Between The Ring And Its Sequel
• "The Origin Of Terror"
• Cast And Crew Interviews
• Theatrical Trailer

The Ring Two
• NEW Commentary With Film Critics Emily Higgins And Billy Dunham
• Unrated Version Of the Film
• Rings – Short Film That Uncovers The Terrifying And Secret Connection Between The Ring And Its Sequel
• Deleted Scenes
• "Fear Of Film: Special Effects"
• "Faces Of Fear: The Phenomenon"
• "Samara: From Eye Of Icon"
• "The Power Of Symbols"
• The Making Of The Ring Two
• Theatrical Trailer

Rings
• Deleted/Extended Scenes
• "Terror Comes Full Circle"
• "Resurrecting The Dead: Bringing Samara Back"
• "Scary Scenes"

Final Score: ​

The Ring Collection is a solid boxset with good features, and it’s nice to actually get the 2nd film in HD (or UHD in this case too) for the very first time. Most fans are really only going to be wanting the 1st film, or the 1st and 2nd film, but having Rings along for the ride isn’t a bad thing from a collector’s point of view either. The Discs look fantastic in 4K UHD, while the excellent DTS-HD MA tracks from the previous releases (for the 1st and 3rd film) sound amazing.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Avu-Chan, Mirai Moriyama,
Directed by: Gore Verbinski / Hideo Nakata / F. Javier Gutierrez
Written by: Ehren Kruger, Koji Suzuki, Hiroshi Takahashi (The Ring, The Ring Two) / David Loucka, Jacob Estes, Akiva Goldsmith
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 HEVC (all 3)
Audio:
The Ring: English DTS-HD MA 5.1, English DD 2.0
The Ring Two: English DTS-HD MA 5.1, English DD 2.0
Rings: English DTS-HD MA 7.1, English DD 2.0
Subtitles:
The Ring: English SDH
The Ring Two: English SDH
Rings: English SDH
Studio: Scream Factory
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 115 Minutes / 128 Minutes / 102 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: March 19th 2024

Recommendation: Good Set for Fans

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