The Ring

one of the best remakes ever made tbh, some of the things it does i prefer to the original (which i will hereby refer to as “the original”)

in the remake I was annoyed by

* too much work being done to humanize the characters, explain motivation, etc.
* less muddy photography
* the most important shot of all when she comes out of the TV looked much more conventional horror therefore less scary
* there being an actual picture of a ring in the video

wow i disagree with all of that, the character work seems aligned with the original for the most part except for expanding the precociousness of the kid. the photography in the original ring is also really clean? gore verbinski admittedly makes it cleaner but that's part of why it's so gorgeous. the shots of the trees while she's staying in the cabin are my favorite

there being an actual picture of a ring in the video

the ring is the well, it's in the original too, though the image looks different

my only real issue with the remake is they put too much stuff in the video

it is also amazing how the the faces of the ppl killed by the tape in the remake look even more terrifying than in the og

some combo of drowned, strangled, and decayed

it may be that I had a poor VHS copy of the original, if so that was a blessing.

the characterisation I didn't like was expanding on the journalist / mother's life as a stressed professional single mum, it wasn't so much that it was a change from the original, it was just that it felt like they were trying to humanize her / build identification with her, which for me works against the mood of the film.

but yeah, making the kid a generic creepy kid would also go on my list.

It sounds like what you liked about the original is that it was... inscrutable

the characterisation I didn't like was expanding on the journalist / mother's life as a stressed professional single mum, it wasn't so much that it was a change from the original, it was just that it felt like they were trying to humanize her / build identification with her, which for me works against the mood of the film.

there's literally not much more material on this in the remake than there is in the original, they even have the same line of dialogue about it (can't remember exactly what it is but it's something like "he's used to me being away")