SYNOPSIS: When the horror film Ringu, based on a novel by Suzuki Koji (the Japanese Stephen King), became that country's top grosser of 1998, a Hollywood remake was inevitable. The story follows an urban myth about a videotape that when watched leads to a sudden, horrible death exactly a week later. Ringu's cult status as a disturbing viewing experience is well-deserved, as Henderson (Windtalkers) discovered upon watching it with a handful of his burly buddies. "At one key point, all four of us leapt, like, five feet away from the television, screaming like a bunch of girls," he says. "It was awesome." In the English-language version, Henderson plays the skeptical ex-boyfriend of a reporter (Mulholland Drive's Watts) who pressures him into helping her investigate the mysterious video-until both of them become its next potential victims. With a script by Ehren Kruger (Scream 3) and makeup effects by six-time Oscar winner Rick Baker, the $40 million remake hews pretty closely to the original. "Believe me, this is a very . . . scary . . . film," Watts says. "And I say that in slow . . . staccato . . . syllables."
Home Movies: Does Watts have any strangely sinister videos in her personal collection? "Only films I've done," she says.
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The Ring
Release Date: October 18
Starring: Naomi Watts, Martin Henderson, and Brian Cox
Directed by: Gore Verbinski
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Copyright © 2008 Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S., Inc.