Originally posted: June 25, 2006 @ 9:44am PST

To celebrate Ring Week, I decided to postpone my usual Monster-of-the-Week column so that I could focus on the theme of the week, the Ring movies. Over the course of the week, I’ve seen some of the movies solely so that I can remain fresh for my reviews and I hope that I can do the three ladies justice in my article here. Unfortunately, time permits me to only cover their first appearances, but I’ll do my best. So, away we go!

Sadako: The original and, some say, the best of the Ring ladies. She’s the one that started it all, the one on which all Japanese horror seems to be tested against, which is amazing considering the small amount of screen time she actually has in Ringu. Her first appearance in the movie was at the psychic demonstration that her mother gave. We see a glimpse of her powers first, though, as the reporter who called her mother a fraud quickly died with a silent yell on his face. Her mother saw what happened and screamed, "Sadako! Was it you?" Then, Sadako steps out from the curtains and runs to Reiko, who’s seeing the flashback as if she were there. Sadako grabs Reiko’s arm (we see her fingernails ripped out even here) and Reiko jumps to the present, with smudgemarks on her arm where Sadako had grabbed her.

Pictured: Sadako from Ringu on DVD

Later, Reiko is in the well, trying to find Sadako in the water. When she finds her, we see another flashback scene, this time of Sadako’s father coming up behind her and hitting her in the head, then throwing her into the well. Reiko believes that their finding her body will beat the curse, a notion that seems to be reinforced by the fact that she still lives past the deadline.

However, this leads to the last Ringu appearance… the apartment attack. Ryuji, Reiko’s ex-husband, is working in his office when his TV flicks on to display a shot of the well. At the same time, Reiko tries to call him. Ryuji sees Sadako emerge from the well and approach the TV screen very slowly. When she reaches the screen, she climbs through (giving us another view of her nailless fingers) and slowly, jerkily, raises up to come after Ryuji. In the end, we get to see the infamous eye, as was shown in my Ringu review.

Pictured: Samara from The Ring on DVD

Samara: We definitely get to see more of Samara than we do of Sadako in her first appearance. Our first glimpse is during Rachel’s dreaming sequence, where she goes upstairs to Aidan’s room and sees a figure sitting in a chair, its back to the door. As Rachel approaches, the camera pans over to the figure’s shoulder… when Rachel’s right next to the figure, a rotted arm reaches up to grabs her arm, waking her out of her dream and leaving burnmarks where she was grabbed. Later, we get to see Samara in video from the psychiatric hospital, where she reveals that she wants to hurt people (though it doesn’t quite sound that way the first time we see it), and that she’s sorry. When Rachel’s in the well (not from her own doing, unlike Reiko), she finds Samara. Rachel sees how her mother had tried to suffocate Samara and drop her down the well. Finally, we see Samara strike at Noah in the end sequence, showing how vengeful she really can be.

Pictured: Tabitha from Scary Movie 3 on DVD

Tabitha: Tabitha is the Scary Movie universe’s analogy to Sadako and Samara, so as such, she has pretty much the same powers as the two. We don’t see her grab anyone’s arm during the movie, so we don’t know what her touch would do. When she first appears (outside of the opening few minutes where we get a glimpse of her), she emerges from the well then approaches Brenda through the screen. Brenda actually does a good job of fighting back at her, but Tabitha gets the upper hand and Cindy finds her friend dead. When next we actually see her (we hear her voice twice on the phone before the end), it’s at the farmhouse near the close of the film, appearing behind Cindy. She does a good job of staying exactly behind her, until Cindy catches her and she grabs Cody. Cindy and George appeal to Tabitha, telling her that maybe all she needs is a mother and a father who would love her. Tabitha morphs to a beautiful little girl who tells them, "Thank you, your love has broken the curse. I’ll never have to kill again." When Cindy asks "Really?" Tabitha morphs back into the rotted version and pulls out a knife, saying, "Nah, I’m just screwin’ with ya!" At that moment, the President pops in and hits Tabitha from behind with the door, knocking her back in the well. Then he tells the two, "I just want to tell you good luck. We’re all counting on you."

In the alternate ending of the movie we see a different power manifest in a more direct parody of The Matrix than just Shaniqua earlier in the movie. In this version, Tabitha takes the place of the multiple Agent Smiths from the second Matrix movie, coming out of abandoned lots, copy shops ("Copies Made While You Wait" reads the sign), and a strip club ("Girls Girls Girls"). As they approach Cindy, a phone rings and all the copies feel for their phone, but only one pulls it out and answers with "Seven days." They then attack Cindy, who manages to beat all of them in a fight.

This concludes my look at the Ring Girls. Feel free to message me if you want me to expand on the girls’ second or later appearances and I’ll get to your request as soon as I can! Now, as for Ring Week, I have one more article planned out for later tonight, and I hope you enjoy it!  Until then, this is Red Hawk, signing out!

-- by Red Hawk of http://www.happyhorror.com

"You lose the race, you lose your car!"

- Rughead in The Wraith

Maybe all guys have memories of playing with Hot Wheels when they were little boys. Perhaps a few girls do, too. Though I favored action figures far more heavily than toy cars, I had my fair share stored in a Dukes of Hazzard case with a Wheaties sticker on the back. I never developed gearhead syndrome, so I knew pretty much nada about cars. That meant I spent alot of time improvising elaborate storylines for the vehicle’s occupants and all the reasons they’d need to crash in full cinematic glory. The Wraith delivers precisely the sort of tales I had in mind back in those days.

Until glittersoul’s boyfriend mentioned the movie to me I’d not even heard of it. Probably because I grew up in anti-Hollywood kinda family where the boobies and profanity in this flick would’ve sent my mother to the E.R. Once he started telling me about it, it kept sounding better and better. I mean I’m not a "car movie" kind of guy, but a supernatural car and driver? Hell yes!

First things first: The Wraith came out in 1986. Translation? Dangerous hairdos ahead! And a vast soundtrack of music including Lion, Mötley Crüe, Ozzy Osborne and Robert Palmer accusing us all of being Addicted to Love. Fortunately my generation can’t be blamed for the general craziness of that decade. I weep for those of you who are responsible.

The general story here is that our hero, Jake Kesey (played by Charlie Sheen) misses his old suntanned lover, Keri Johnson (played by Sherilyn Fenn of Dream Warrior, True Blood and Darkness Falls). So he’s back from the dead and stuff to get her cause Packard Walsh (played by Nick Cassavetes of Face/Off, Blind Fury and Assault of the Killer Bimbos) done him up real good. Ole Packard’s quite the cocksure Grease fanboy from the looks of it. He’s all black leather and cold resolve - oh, and switchblades. Keri’s his property as far as he’s concerned, but you know that’s simply because he feels inadequate on the inside. Watch for the scene where he and Keri become ‘blood brothers‘. Total emo sapitude ™. Way before its time.

So we got the hardass bad boy, but what bad boy would be complete without goons? Packard’s got ‘em in droves, man. There’s two in particular though, that really stand out. Skank (played by David Sherrill of Mars Attacks!, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The Beast) and Gutterboy (Jamie Bozian of Con Air, Five Aces and She’s So Lovely), both of whom - get this - drink brake fluid. Yeah! Brake fluid swiggin’ and WD-40 snortin’, that’s what I’m talkin’ about! Whoo! I wonder how many 80’s teens went on to try that sort of numbskullery ™? You know people try idiotic stuff like that, after all there’s people addicted to frickin’ spraypaint! I know cause I saw it on an episode of COPS.

 

Pictured: Skank’s on the far left lookin’ almost as weird as Rughead who’s chewing him out (The Wraith)… That’s Gutterboy behind them "polishing"

Then again, Skank probably has no alternative but to employ creative substances in his quest for intoxication. I mean look at the guy, with hair and makeup THAT cool you know he spends a fortune on Manic Panic. Speaking of Skank, what exactly is he supposed to be? A groupie for both Twisted Sister and the Dead Kennedys? I’ve never seen glam punk but I guess it could be a legit subculture, right?

Proudly, I can tell you this film was shot near me in Arizona. Appropriate, too, because people really do drive like asylum escapees around these parts. Tuscon, to be precise. I recognized all those gnarly cactuses and nowhere else could the Wraith get away with shooting up a car garage like he does. In Tuscon, people don’t care about that kind of thing. It’s a dry heat. As a side note, the Wraith reminds me a bit of Boba Fett.

The law around those parts gets played by Randy Quaid who I love solely based on his work in Siege at Ruby Ridge, a brilliant piece of television. He’s Sheriff Loomis this time, which reminds me of Dr. Loomis in the Halloween series. Freaky. By the way, he references the Arizona gas chamber, and though we remain the last state to have used the gas chamber, we have lethal injection as of ‘92 so it’s generally the deadly overdose we employ around here. He’s not fond of pickles, either, as you’ll see in one fairly comical shot.

There’s a good deal of general goofiness throughout the film from Gutterboy loading "bullets" into a shotgun down to Charlie Sheen riding around on a profoundly ghey dirtbike. Crap! I mentioned the dirtbike so I feel obligated to bring up the cars. Bare with me because this part could get ugly!

We got Packard Walsh driving a late 70’s Corvette with an (obviously, even to me) custom paint job. Oggie’s driving the 1986 Dodge Daytona Turbo Z glittersoul’s bf so admires. Skank drove a beat up Barricuda that looked like he might moonlight a Chinese food delivery guy. Minty drove a ‘77 Pontiac Firebird with a fake supercharger. The other car which he really likes is the ‘87 Dodge Daytona Shelby Z with the pop-up headlights. I admit, it’s awfully bodacious.

 

Pictured: The Dodge M4S, an otherworldly ride from The Wraith

The Wraith’s ride is a Dodge M4S, something thrown together by Dodge and the people who make pace cars for the Indy Car industry. The sucker cost $1.5 million to make so if you’re wondering why they went through so many of them to make this movie (due to crash scenes), here’s the secret: they used dune buggies with identical bodies! Slick, huh? Not only was this car a true automotive marvel of its day (able to go 194 miles per hour), it also got a special bronze pearl paint job created solely for it. Exciting, right?

[Editor's note: The film's ending dedication to Bruce Ingram is because he perished while filming of the movie]

Yes, throughout this scene you’ll get to see amazing 1980’s nostalgic icons like Daisy Dukes, the oh-so-prevalent "girl on the sidewalk" shot and Clint Howard’s truly amazing hair style which made me think of Adam Ant. It’s all in crazy fun, Merry Readers. You know I gotta give this one a 5 out of 5 based purely on the insanity of the era its set in and the glorious slow-motion fiery crashes with big orange orbs of fire goin’ all over the place. Fantastic! Or should I say tubular? Either way, if you’ve missed this one I think it’s a must own.

Until next time, this is GlowStormLion remaining grateful he missed being a teen in the 80’s.

-- by GlowStormLion of http://www.happyhorror.com