Trailer Talk: Thoughts On ‘Rings’ and the Second Full Trailer

It’s hard to believe that we are almost 15 years past the original American adaptation of The Ring directed by Gore Verbinski (Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl). The first movie did a really good job in fusing suspense with the folklore of the 1998 Japanese release, Ring – that used the visuals to enhance the creepiness instead of gratuitous violence or gore.

After an lesser received sequel in 2005, The Ring Two was not well as well received and the franchise laid dormant for a while amidst an onslaught of J-horror adaptations like The Grudge and (sigh) One Missed Call. Paramount Pictures decided to add a third entry into the franchise, which was first believed to be 3D, but now we have Rings.

Rings which is due for a February 3rd release and directed by F. Javier Gutiérrez has seen it’s fair of troubles. Originally slated for release on November 13, 2015 has been delayed twice.(yeesh)

The first trailer (for which I will not include – trust me on this) was problematic because it showed the entire movie. There has been a problem with horror films recently with the notion that suspense has been lost. Most of the trailers usually have the jump scares in them, so you basically know what to expect two months before you go to the theater and what is supposed to scare you is met with a collective “oh’.

The new trailer for the movie is short, sweet, and to the point. This movie is based 13 years after the original Ring, so a killer VHS tape would be less than plausible in these times. It seems that our friend Samara has upgraded and been sending the cursed video by email. You see a smattering of imagery of characters from the film who are inflicted with the seven days curse while Samara is summing up the premise of the film in nursery rhymes form. With this being the first big horror release of the year, I’m intrigued to see where the franchise can go with a new director. I’m not insanely excited as a horror fan, especially with the long delays in between post-production – that usually underscores some major problems.

With horror movies, there has to be something that grabs you to make you want to go see the movie. This particular trailer is geared to the newcomer of the franchise. So much time has passed that a veteran of the franchise would dismiss this as something they’ve already seen. This is really geared towards grabbing a new audience and it will be interesting to see if that happens.

Main Photo Credit: Paramount Pictures