Ring

As I've posted before on this journal, the American film The Ring is perhaps the creepiest horror movie it has ever been my pleasure to watch. The only problem is, having seen it, I lose a critical element of surprise and suspense going into the reading of Ring, the novel on which that movie is based. I have a genuinely difficult time trying to decide whether those who are unfamiliar with the story should watch the movie or go straight to the book. Koji Suzuki's writing is definitely worth exploring, though. The man knows his creepiness, and it was quite fun going into the novel and seeing the solid bedrock of the plot in place even though the outer layers were of course vastly different from the film.

The differences between the book and the movie were the primary fun I had reading this, so I'll touch on those briefly: it's set in Japan, of course. The protagonist is a male reporter rather than a female one, with a spouse and a child, so there's no romantic subplot. There's a sidekick character who's the most interesting member of the cast, due to his blatant amorality and the question of whether he actually ever committed the heinous acts he claims to have done--a question for which the protagonist has no answer. Most notably, the circumstances surrounding the character who's the driving force of the plot--in this version, Sadako--are quite different from what is seen in the American movie.

I'm told that there are some lesser differences between the novel and the Japanese film Ring, though I haven't seen that yet, so I can't judge how it stacks up against the book. Till then, I can definitely recommend this as a fun read, whether or not you've seen either version of the movie. Four stars.