In horror and thriller films it is extremely common that the victims in the films are white females. This is also evident in The Ring as the first character we see who is being harassed by the spirit is a young, white female. This follows the archetype in Hollywood that women are the weaker sex and are nearly always victimised. However, the main antagonist in the film is also a young female. This would go against the archetype as it shows a woman being the main antagonist and being dominant over the other characters.
The opening scene of The Ring features a woman being tormented by spirits in her home.
The only noise that can be heard at the start of the scene is the static from the TV. This makes the scene seem eerie and creepy. When the TV turns on by itself a high pitch screech is sounded. This is again evident when the fridge door opens on it own. This is there to emphasise the fact that the happenings are supernatural and the audience would start to worry for the characters wellbeing. In addition to this a spooky whoosh noise is heard when the spirit comes out of the TV. This also makes the scene seem paranormal adding to the scary atmosphere in the scene.
The only sounds in the first minute of the clip are ambient sounds such as footsteps and the TV`s static. This makes the scene tense and it makes the audience anticipate something, even though nothing happens. It is very foreboding.
At the start of the clip theres a medium shot so the audience get a feel of the surroundings of which is a normal family home by that time they would start to relax as nothing horrible happens in your own home... but all of a sudden you're able to see the television turn on by its self which it is then zoomed in on gradually. There is then an extreme close up on the girl to show the shock and fear on her face as she turns to see it through the glass windows. The girl then moves into the living room but is shown in her perspective as the camera moves as she would. It then opens up the view of the whole lounge as a medium long shot. Once she turns off the television and it comes back on there is a close up shot of her and the television. When you hear the whoosh sound she turns around very quickly and so does the camera in a 90 degree turn as an act of surprise. She then follows the noise up stairs; in away the camera acts as if it's the spirit when it looks down the stairs at her as a high medium shot. The last few camera angles are worm's eye view showing water coming out of the door and the girl walking up to it. Then theres a extreme close up of the door handle with it being the main focus in the shot because thats the one thing in real life you would never do but in a horror they do the unexpected. Once opened a picture of a well appears and as i was saying earlier the camera act as if it was the spirit with a quick motion the camera zoomed in on the girl faces acting as if it is about to attack her. The camera moves slowly within the scene to show a more tense vibe because as the camera goes slow the audience will start to wonder whats going to happen next and the more tension will build.
There are no fancy transitions just jump cuts which suggests that they want to get straight to the point otherwise it wouldn't catch the audience by surprise if they used any other type of transition. Using the jump cut puts the audience on edge as one moment it could be fine then the next you could see a gruesome/scary imagery this tends to fit a low budget horror movie. The only other editing in this scene is at the very end which they used a static filter so it looks just like the television has engulfed her with flashing imagery of a little girl screaming and a well.
In the scene there is a school girl (wearing a uniform) thats in her family kitchen thats just been to the fridge to get a drink which is very ordinary however the television turns on by it's self and is showing static. She then thinks someone is playing a trick on her and turns the t.v. off once by the remote then by removing the plug. She then hears a sound which i think sounds like the spirit coming out of the television which there is another horror movie based on roughly the same thing called the Poltergeist of which is a story based on a little girl getting possessed by a few spirits by talking to them through a static channel. Anyway the girl then follows the noise up stairs which obviously happens in all horror movies. (they have to open the door and boo! the horror figure is standing right there) She opens the door which mysteriously has water seeping out of it, the television had a picture of a well...she screams and her face gets all disfigured although you don't see that far into the film from that short clip. The well is a major part of the film (spoiler alert) and represents the resting place of a young girl that was tortured for seven days and was filmed during it. The reason for the title of the movie is because of that well as a ring of light appears from when she was trapped in there.
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