I am – Hercules!!

AICN’s Man In Chicago looks at a major major extra in the new “Ring” DVD!

Hey, everyone. Capone in Chicago here. I’m not exactly known for being the guy on this site that reviews DVDs. In all the years I’ve been writing for AICN, you can probably count my DVD reviews on one hand. Not that I wouldn’t love all the Home Entertainment branches of all the big and little studios to send me crateloads of free DVDs for me to review, but they don’t do it that often, so I don’t review them. There are enough new films in theatres to keep me busy. However, every so often something cool drops in my mailbox. Case in point:

I honestly had no intention of buying THE RING Collector’s Set. I loved the movie, already had the originally released DVD, and that was good enough for me. But last week I received an unmarked VHS tape from Dreamworks. My heart went a-thumpin’. I didn’t even read the press release that came in the package. I just threw the tape in my player and let it roll. For a brief shining moment, I thought maybe they’d sent screeners of THE RING 2. Since I’m traveling the week of the Chicago screening of the film, I’ll have to miss the press screening, and that does not make this gangster a happy camper. But instead of a copy of the new film, a got something more unexpected and still, ultimately, kinda cool.

For those of you who ran out this week to buy the 2-disc Collector’s Set, you may not even realize that included on the second disc is something I can’t think of ever being done before (I’m sure someone will prove me wrong, but my mind is often fuzzy). There’s a 16-minute short film called RINGS, written by THE RING and THE RING 2’s Ehren Kruger and directed by Jonathan Liebesman (DARKNESS FALLS). Kind of like what some of the ANIMATRIX shorts did, this film attempts to bridge the gap between the two RING movies. A group of hyped-up, death-loving teens have formed a kind of club around the killer videotape. They, in turn, videotape whichever in their group has most recently watched the tape to see how long the person’s sanity lasts. Four or five days is usually as long as they let it go (remember, that seven days after watching the tape, you die), then they make a copy of the tape and someone else in the group watches it. RINGS focuses on one of the kids, whom the group decides to film for the full seven days to see what happens (as of yet, they don’t actually know; it’s all urban legend to them). Two of the cast members from THE RING 2 (Ryan Merriman and Emily VanCamp) are featured in the film, and I’ll admit, the thing creeped me out. It’s not as good as THE RING, but it’s still really good. But more than that, I simply appreciate the effort on the part of the filmmakers to give us a plausible between-films story that isn’t pure junk. It’s certainly a cut above the usual stale documentaries and filmmaker bios that pass for extras these days.

Remember how in the original film, how the faces of those “infected” by the videotape looked blurry in photographs? RINGS expands that effect onto videotape. The effect is very cool. And RINGS isn’t just a missed introduction to THE RING 2; it’s a fully realized work that features yet another attack by our favorite girl in the well and some bizarre visual effects involving water droplets that rock. But is RINGS alone worth shelling out the cash for the Collector’s Set? It really depends on how into RINGU/THE RING mythology you are. If I’d known about RINGS and not received a copy in the mail, I probably would have sought out the least expensive copy of the set I could, and paid to see it. There are plenty of other cool things on the second disc, but nothing that rivals RINGS. And I suppose I won’t know if the information in RINGS will enhance my enjoyment of THE RING 2, but I’m guessing it will. Stuff happens here that seems necessary and relevant to the overall plot of the two American films. The one thing I'm absolutely certain of is that RINGS makes me all the more desperate to see THE RING 2, and all the more pissed off I’m missing the screening. Excuse me, I think I’m going to cry...sniff.

email: Shoot Capone a line! He lives in a giant bucket!