film opening - the ring

THE RING

The films starts off with the two girls on a bed talking. They appear very bored, and this creates the element

that something more exciting will happen. The mise-en-scene shows a typical girls bedroom from the pink lamp and girly objects lying around. We can hear a fuzzy noise

of a TV in the beginning followed by the noise of a TV show.

The girls begin to talk about a tape that kills people in seven days after you’ve watched it. There is still pretty much

silence in the background apart from the weather we hear outside. Suddenly she pretends to choke, and this tricks the audience in thinking that she’ll die when really her and her friend are just messing around, which could foreshadow a

real death later on.

As the girls laugh, a phone begins to ring, and they stop instantly. They look at the clock which is exactly

10:00 and we can hear the ticking of it. This builds suspense and shows how the element of time is used throughout the rest of the film with the idea of dying

after 7 days.

The girl stops joking around and we can see this terrified expression on her face as she looks up to her friend. From how the camera angle is facing down on

her from a high shot, it also shows that she is probably going to be the victim as the audience are

forced to look down on her.

The suspense builds here as the phone rings and the two girls stare at it. It makes us believe that the person

who is calling isn’t a friendly person who would normally ring. We can see now fully how the two girls

are dressed, and that they are just two school girls, which makes them appear innocent and young, yet

naïve to different things in the world.

At this point in the opening, the camera sits in a position focusing on where the girl is and what is behind her. From the angle it is facing, it gives the audience the impression that there is going to be something behind her when the refrigerator door

closes, bringing in yet another jump scare.

She is just about to drink out of her glass but suddenly A TV screen sees on, from where we hear a TV fuzzing

noise and the lit up screen in the reflection of the window. She stops in her tracks and slowly looks around, with a close up on her face to build the

tension of something strange happening.

We see the remote is on a pillow, and so her friend couldn’t have turned on the TV seeing as she is

upstairs. This makes her confused and leaves the audience in suspicion of what turned on the TV. She

stares at it, heavily breathing, as it turns itself on again, showing that she’s getting scared and

frustrated.

The fridge door also then opens by itself, showing that it’s definitely not her friend doing this. Some eerie music then starts playing very subtly, showing that something

will make the audience scared all of a sudden. The camera looking down the stairs at the girl shows there is

something more in power than her upstairs and she is now weak and helpless, especially as its only her and her

friend in the house, with no other help.

The water on the floor is very mysterious, and there is no sign of her friend anywhere. The camera focuses

on how slowly and carefully she steps, conveying that she is very wary of what is in her room. The light

coming from her room is also like the TV in the living room when it randomly turned on and was fuzzing.

The girl walks into the room and sees the TV with the ‘video’ playing. We hear a high pitched screeching and the camera very quickly

zooms into her face showing this very scary expression. This is very scary for the audience seeing as it is very fast paced and it is hard to

tell what has happened to her friend and also if this has killed the girl. The screen then cuts to this fuzzing display, showing that there is no

more content on the video. This adds the mystery that the video plays and stops when it wants and it somehow manages to kill the girls.