pick a card, any card
The ordinary becomes extraordinary, even scary, in The Ring . Not just the videotape (and by extension the VCR), but the telephone and its ring. That opening sequence, with Katie's back-and-forth as to whether or not there is a tape, whether or not she watched it, whether or not she's dying--it turns serious when the phone rings (only to have yet another double back since it's just her mother calling). Similarly, in the opening sequence of The Ring Two , Jake is horrified by the ring of the phone and so are we, on some level, even though we know better--Samara does not call you when she's about to kill you. She calls once, right after you watch the tape. The ordinary becoming a danger--that's anxiety over technological ubiquity turned into a horror film. Well, technological in terms of the VCR and the telephone, and ultimately the television itself. But also the ladder. But, I don't even want to write about today. I will forego that topic by simply pointing ...