THE RING - PG13 Stars:  Naomi Watts, Martin Henderson, David Dorfman, Brian Cox, Jane Alexander, Lindsay Frost Director:  Gore Verbinski Screenwriter:  Ehren Kruger; based on the novel by Koji Suzuki Eerie and genuinely scary The Ring, is a remake of Japan's top grossing 1998 thriller Ringu. It stars Naomi Watts as Rachel Keller, a Seattle newspaper reporter who learns that her teenaged niece has literally been scared to death seven days after she and some friends, who also die, watched a strangely surreal videotape at a remote motel cabin. The story goes that after viewing the vidceotape, seven days will pass; the phone will ring and then you're dead! During Rachel's investiation of the strange deaths, she views and makes a copy of the tape. She enlists the aid of former lover Noah (Martin Henderson) and their precocious son Aidan (David Dorfman) who appears to be hearing messages from a dead girl connected to the video. The phone rings and, sure enough, she has seven days in which to solve the riddle. Her investigation leads to an abandoned horse farm where a hostile owner (Brian Cox) hides information about his dead wife and daughter. Lotta says: Washington state's gloomy weather is a perfect setting for a haunting. The video images presented on screen add to the nightmarish atmosphere. This is one very good shost story, superior in every way to the blood and gore fests usually out there. Rated PG-13 - for thematic elements, disturbing images, language and some drug references. Additional Cast: Jane Alexander - Dr. Grasnik Lindsay Frost - Ruth Amber Tamblyn - Katie Rachael Bella - Becca Daveigh Chase - Samara Shannon Cochran - Anna Morgan Sandra Thigpen - Teacher Richard Lineback - Innkeeper Reviewed March 2003