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Ringu, Salton Sea and Session 9........

I rented these three films this week and two were pretty good and one was decent.

Ringu is the original Japanese film of the recent US release/cult hit RING and not having seen the latter, I can say that the plot is interesting--people watch a mysterious video clip and then die in exactly seven days. The backstory is believable to a degree and the ending isn't a happy one. If you've seen the US version, then this is a must. If you haven't seen either, then maybe try the original if you can find it.

Session 9 stars David Carusso, but actually the biggest star is the real life insane asylum: Danvers State Hospital, 30 miles north of Boston (Clark, care to chime in?) built in like 1855 (and expanded in 1871) in the form of a giant bat so to speak. It was closed in 1982. It was also the place where in 1948, they perfected the pre-frontal lobotomy. They also pioneered hydro therapy where patients were dunked in ice cold water to get them to snap out of it, LOL. Needless to say, some weird shit went down over the years for the up to 2700 patients housed there. It was a fully self-contained operation but finally succmbed to budget cuts and overcrowding.

The plot revolves around a five man Haz-Mat crew who is paid to go in and clean up the asbestos so that the state can reclaim the structure as a landmark and open it up to the public. The rest is kind of typical ghost story fare, but the photography of the building is really the star. Worth a few dollars and some spare time.

Salton Sea stars Val Kilmer and Vincent D'Onofrio and centers around the LA Area's Crystal Meth scene. It's more of a round-about 'who done it' murder mystery, but the characters are colorful and there's a decent twist at the end. If you're a 'tweaker' than you probably don't want to watch this flick because it's a fairly gloomy depiction of gack and the speed freaks who use it.

Anyway, I'd rank them as Salton Sea, Ringu and Session 9 in that order with Salton Sea being a 8.5 out of 10.

Chris



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Topic - Ringu, Salton Sea and Session 9........ - Chris Garrett 12:42:29 04/28/03 (8)


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