I finally watched THE RING with some friends. I believe everybody liked it, some more than others. I really do like this movie. I think it's smart. It's been years since I've seen RINGU, the original. I remember very little about it other than "ooh, cool, japanesse horror movie with subtitles."

I also expressed that I believed Tom Savini's 1990 remake of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD is better than the original. Yes, I really do think it is. I'm not thinking about film and audio quality. That's not a fair comparaison even though the original is now avaible in near perfect audio and video quality. I'm thinking about the horror part of both. The remake seems like it would be more horrorific if I were in in a real life version of it. Zombies are zombies, but in the remake, they're not zombies. They're just dead things. And for characters, they're a little too over the top in the original except Barbara, who becomes a zombie herself before flipping out over her brother. In the remake, she makes a decision to stand and fight, not lay down and die like her orginal version practically did. Also, the message of both films, if you assume you can find one in either. The first, as it was pointed out to me tonight, could be seen as having a white woman finding herself in a situation where a black man can help her. I like the message of the remake that says we've all pretty much become monsters, especially when shit goes bad.

Shoot them in the head.  ¶ 2:27 AM