OPINION -- Twenty years ago, I watched a movie so frightening I couldn't sleep for days. My sister and I lived in constant fear that the girl from The Ring would crawl out of our TV in the middle of the night, so much so we'd cover our TVs with a towel in the hopes she'd think again about messing with us. It sounds ridiculous now, yes.
But as an avid horror flick fan, that memory is an example of what a good scary movie can do; it sticks with you and gets under your skin for years. We used to reenact the crawling scene to frighten each other, be too afraid to turn out the lights at night and even now the thought of Samara sends chills down my spine. Part of that thrill came from the simplicity of it all.
In The Ring (2002), there's a cursed video tape. If you watch it you get a call saying you have seven days to live, and after that Samara will clamber out your TV, dripping wet, and it's game over. What's so completely brilliant about The Ring – which you can stream on Stan – is that while there is use of computer-generated imagery (CGI), it's subtle enough you can't notice.
That's exactly what it should feel like. It's my opinion that these days, so many horror movies rely heavily on CGI to impart terror. I think it's the main catalyst as to why so many modern horror films don't hit the mark like they used to, and there's few I even find memorable at all.
READ MORE: I went to see the horror movie that has left audiences vomiting during screenings - here's what I thou.
