Gore Verbinski very slowly injects drama by creating false alarms. When Katie reveals that she’s watched the tape with her boyfriend, Becca tries to change the subject by asking her if anything happened between the couple. Katie goes on to explain what happened with the tape and Becca believes it- until Katie tricks Becca into thinking that she’s choking. That’s when the girls joke around and change the topic to sex. Conveniently, the phone rings straight after. Verbinski uses this tactic to raise the audience’s adrenalin. He sets up false alarms in order to create an edgy atmosphere, but very slowly. This is extremely effective because the two parts contrast each other and instantly the audience wants to find out what’s happening.
Shooting the film, the director makes good use of extreme close-ups, especially when Katie and Becca are talking about the videotape. Quick cuts are used to show characters’ expressions. Whilst coming down the stairs, the camera uses a low angled shot in order to create suspense as we, the audience, do not know what is waiting for Katie at the other end of the stairs or what is going to happen.
Timing was an essential aspect of Verbinski’s opening to ‘The Ring’. He creates an effective opening by setting up quite a calm scene until Becca mentions the videotape. Straight after Katie’s made a joke of it, the relaxed scene is introduced back into the scene, contrasting the tense atmosphere before. Just when viewers think that nothing’s going to happen, the phone rings. This automatically adds drama to the beginning of the film by gradually adding to the tense atmosphere.
Once Becca has finished scaring Katie with phone- once more, Katie goes into the kitchen. What’s interesting about this particular event is that the camera focuses on Becca- even though she’s making her way upstairs. Perhaps this is a clue telling the audience that something’s going to happen to her. Once again, the camera freeze frames on where Becca had been standing, just after Katie shuts the refrigerator door- in other words; Katie opens the refrigerator, hiding Becca and then she shuts the door leaving nothing. As if Becca had just vanished into thin air- this moment gives the audience a big clue as to what’s going to happen to Becca. It generates suspense because the viewers are given hints as to what’s about to happen when Katie doesn’t.
Both, diagetic and non-diagetic sound is used to construct suspense throughout the opening. Rain and the sound of a TV screeching (both non-diagetic sounds) can be heard right at the very beginning of the opening.
When Katie suspects something is wrong with Becca, she hurries upstairs to see what’s going on. The camera doesn’t reveal what’s happening- it follows Katie instead to form a sense of thrill for the viewers. Following on, Katie then notices water on the floor just outside her bedroom door. What’s strange about this is that Katie actually gets on the floor to observe the water, seeing her reflection. Opening the door to her bedroom, the camera zooms into Katie’s face as if Samara (Daveigh Chase) is crawling out of the TV. This particular scene creates suspense because as soon as Katie opens the door, the audience knows something’s going to happen- they’re on the edge of their seats when finally the camera zooms into Katie’s face (which is covered with revolting gore), rapidly. The audiences’ pulses are raised because tension is gradually built up- the audience knows what’s going to happen, but not when.
Gore Verbinski’s use of symbols and signs have a chilling effect on the audience because they know something’s going to happen- but they unravel the truth behind those signs later on. The most significant symbol was water which represented danger; it was the first sound to be heard, it was raining outside and was found outside Katie’s bedroom- where Katie died. Even the colours used are somewhat like water colours (dull yellows, dim greens and dull blues). Another symbol is the ladder from the videotape, I think that it could represent the stairs in Katie’ house, as we do not know what’s going to happen- fear of the unknown.
One more sign that I noticed was the mirror; when Katie’s mum rang, there was a mirror, in the hallway, next to her in which we could only see Katie. A few minutes later, when Katie discovered the water outside her bedroom, she looked deep into the water, reflecting her face (just like a mirror) and died later on. The woman from the videotape was shown jumping off a cliff- but that was after we were shown her looking into the mirror. I thought that this was quite effective as viewers realize these subtle symbols later on, which fascinates them.
In my opinion, the opening for ‘The Ring’ is extremely effective because Gore Verbinski has taken into consideration each and every aspect of the movie: script, camera angles camera shots, colours, symbols and sound effects. I found his methods successful as the movie built up suspense in the first five minutes. He approached the tense moments very differently as in some films directors would cut to the chase; however Verbinski inserts drama and thrills very slowly which I found was effective.