Although it is not always a simple task to categorize works into genres, nor does a specific work necessarily fall under a definite genre (as described by Daniel Chandler in An Introduction to Genre Theory), we still find ourselves classifying movies, novels, shows, etc. into genres. We use characteristics, traits, and common elements to group works together. The film “The Ring” (2002) directed by Gore Verbinski has the components to be considered a horror movie.
One of the main and obvious characteristics of a horror film is death. “The Ring” meets this requirement within the first ten minutes of the film. The opening scene is two teenage girls, Katie Embry and Rebecca ( or Becca) Kotler, talking about what they did the previous weekend. Katie describes her trip to a cabin with three of her friends. While they are chatting, Becca mentions a cursed video tape where whoever watches it dies in seven days. Katie admits to watching this tape at the cabin. The girls brush off the subject and go downstairs. Suddenly, the television turns itself on and is full of static, even after Katie unplugs it. Within minutes, Katie is screaming and the screen goes black and cuts to the next scene. She died while her friend Becca watched. Becca ends up in a mental facility. Besides this first death, as the film goes on various characters die. After some investigating by Katie's Aunt Rachel and her son, Aiden, the secret of the video tape is revealed. A little girl and her mother were seen on the tape. The mother, Anna Morgan, complained about visions she saw when Samara, her adopted daughter was around. Years ago Anna Morgan killed her own daughter by dropping her in a well and leaving her there to die. Anna also killed herself by jumping off a cliff. When Rachel goes to investigate at the Morgan's house, she finds Anna's husband Richard alive and well. He ends up killing himself by holding a toaster among other electrical plugs in the bathtub. Later in the film, Aiden's father Noah, who watched the video tape, dies when Samara actually comes out of the television. An element in all horror movies is death, but it is also the characters trying to avoid death. In “The Ring”, Rachel, Aiden, and Noah did their best to avoid death and stop Samara's cursed tape.
Another element of horror movies is the presence of a killer or the thing people are afraid of. This film produces the "killer" in an original way. At first, the audience would be afraid of the tape itself. As the plot develops, the audience realizes the importance and actual role of the young girl Samara. This little girl is in fact the "killer" that horror films create as the cause to be scared. Besides the mere presence of a killer, it is a characteristic of the killer in horror movies to have past dramatic experiences. Samara was adopted and then felt unwanted by her parents. After her mother started seeing visions, she left Samara in the barn to sleep with the horses. Anna then left Samara in a well to rot and die, where Samara survived for seven days before she died.
The weather in films like “The Ring” is unique to the horror genre. In horror movies, it is often raining, dark, gloomy and windy. After the opening scene when Katie dies, the movie cuts to introduce Rachel. In this scene, it is raining extremely hard. When Rachel first goes to the Morgan household, the wind the blaring through the trees and you can almost feel the dusky, gloomy atmosphere. Basically the entire film is gloomy and dreary setting.
Besides the characteristics I have already mentioned, a horror movie is set out to do a very specific thing and that is to scare people. The point of a horror film is to have people sitting on the edges of their seats, to get people to scream and jump, or simply to get them to see the situation on screen as scary circumstances. The idea of catharsis can tie into this task. In broad terms, catharsis can be described as a kind of emotional cleansing that a person feels after watching a tragedy. After seeing these types of films, you may feel sorrow, pity, or other emotions. Watching these films lets you feel these emotions at the right level and then gives you the ability to release them. After feeling these emotions, you are still able to let go a sigh of relief and be grateful that the person in the film is not you. Horror movies like “The Ring” can provide this essentially therapeutic process. Watching “The Ring” makes you feel sorry for the adopted girl Samara as well as for unsuspecting Katie and every other character that faces a tragic experience. The audience is able to feel bad for Rachel and her son Aiden after going through the terrible ordeal, but after you feel these emotions the movie finishes and you are able to smile to yourself and go back to your much safer reality.
The film “The Ring” contains the necessary characteristics to be able to fit into the genre of horror. It includes death, “killers”, typical horror flick weather, and furthermore, it lets the viewers experience emotions for the duration of the film.