Naomi Watts, plays Rachel, an investigative newspaper reporter whose teenage niece, Katie (Amber Tamblyn), recently died under some very odd circumstances. Apparently, the girl watched a weird video, which -- so the urban-legend rumor mill goes -- causes anyone who's watched it to die seven days later. Being a no-nonsense journalist. Rachel decides to look into the matter. Looking into it, however, means looking at it. Rachel's search takes her from a remote mountain cabin to an island off the coast of Washington state, where tragedy haunts a once-powerful horse breeder (Brian Cox, the original Hannibal in "Manhunter"). There, the ghastly image fragments on the tape begin to make sense, but Rachel still has no idea of the full story. So as the days tick away before she is fated to die Watts plunges forward to try and solve the case before it is too late.

The movie is a remake of a Japanese Horror film several years ago called The Ringu. The story reminds me a lot of the old horror films that used suspense and plain old-fashioned imagination to scare you, rather then the modern day trend of gore. While the movie does show you early on what is on the tape the scenes do not make that much sense and provide the only real visual elements of modern day horror movies. The scenes while not making sense at first do start to unfold as the plot unravels and everything is slowly explained. The movie is chilling as for most of it you have no idea what is going on or where the movie is leading. This leads you to be enthralled onto what is going to happen on the screen as your curiosity and imagination try to figure out the movie. The slow and intense pace of the suspense of the movie also helps. Many times in the movie you may find yourself jumping from one suspenseful moment to the next. But the best part of the movie is that it leaves you in the dark throughout most of the movie allowing you to use your imagination to what the images on the tape pertain to instead of bludgeoning you over the head with it. The story does conclude itself in the end finally and leaves you entranced and most likely pleased with the overall effect of the movie. A must see, but not for the squeamish.
4 stars out of 5