The setting in ‘The Ring’ shows how the film has been modernised, a big suburban house with dark corners that seem able to hide anything, the dark hallways that appears to stretch on for miles. This is a significant contrast to the traditional horror genre as the usual convention of the stereotypical ‘haunted’ house is replaced instead by a modern, suburbanised house within a bustling city. The effect of this? To stress to the audience that the horror genre too can move with the times. To stress to them that nowhere is safe. To stress to them perhaps that modern living and modern technology may soon become the real enemy we must fear.
Rachel’s flat is also in a modern, built up area with many features of technology within it, but as the film has a slight blueish, green tint that gives the rooms a slightly colder look resulting in a gloomy, daunting atmosphere. Eventhough the settings in this film are more contemporary, they still have a menacing atmosphere as you would find in a traditional horror film. The gloomy, rainy weather that accompanies the settings adds to the already eerie and sinister atmosphere, implying that nowhere is safe.
In horror films, it is not uncommon for there to be a quite sinister child characters and ‘The Ring’ is no exception. It does however show the female role in the horror genre has developed from a damsel in distress to a strong character capable of solving the mystery on their own. The role of the ghoul –played by Daveigh Chase- named Samara Morgan is an angry ghost that has been mistreated in her life and now wants everyone to know what had become of her. Because the film is based on Japanese folklore, a favourite tale is for a restless female spirit to seek revenge and the girl does this through the use of a video tape, adding to the element of fear as this is a modern object which we can all relate to as we all own a video tape. The appearance of Adian –Rachel's son- is not uncommon in a horror film as children usually play quite a sinister, mysterious character that seem to know more than they should, or perhaps have some sort of connection with the villain of the film.
At the start of the film there are two teenagers alone in a suburban house, with one of them (Katie) dying due to the secret of the tap, which fits in with the horror genre convention that it is not uncommon for teenagers to fall victim to the threat in the film. Like other infamous child figures in films such as ‘The Exorcist’ ‘Poltergiest’ and ‘The Shining’, Aiden immediately makes us feel uneasy with his mature conduct; haunting eyes and facial expression; along with his seemingly psychic ability to communicate with the energy. Therefore ‘The Ring’ shows that the traditional conventions of the strange unnerving child can still be successfully employed in modern horror films.
The camera angles used in ‘The Ring’ both emphasise and complement the conventions of the horror genre. When the camera runs towards Katie –after she has watched the cursed video tape- as if it is from the point of view of the killer running towards the victim. The end of the shot finishes with an extreme close up which helps to emphasise the fear and terror on Katie’s face. This close up lets the audience see from the eyes of the killer and because we can’t see what’s happening around her it builds the scare factor as the audience doesn’t know who or what killed her. Another camera angle that is common throughout the film is the medium shot, this helps to show what’s happening around the characters or what’s not, therefore increasing the suspicion and tension that something is about to happen, which will keep the audience on edge and ass to the overall effect of the film.
‘The Ring’ uses the common dark, dull, gloomy lighting found in almost every horror film to enhance the daunting atmosphere, there us also a blueish, green tint to the film which further emphasises this, and gives an almost sinister atmosphere, which is a common convention of the horror genre. The lighting in the house at the beginning of the film is very poor, and the corners of rooms seem to disappear in darkness giving the impression that anything and everything could be hiding in it’s depths, this shows and example of the horror genre. Along with lighting, there are a variety of sounds used throughout the film, diegetic sounds are used such as the telephone, which creates suspense as after watching the mysterious tape you receive a phone call. There are many non-diegetic sounds aswell which keep the audience on the edge of their seat, and are uncomfortable sounds (such as screaming) that we could link to the horror genre.
The conventions of the horror film genre in ‘The Ring’ are shown throughout the film in a variety of ways including: lighting, sound, camera angles, setting, character and many more which all add to the overall effect and make it a success as a horror film.
