The Hollywood News sits down with director F. Javier Gutiérrez to chat about haunted videotapes and his new movie Rings.
It’s been twelve years since Samara scared cinema-goers silly in The Ring Two. Now the ghost girl returns in Rings, directed by F. Javier Gutiérrez. Based on the Japanese fright flick Ringu, the film series tells the story of a haunted videotape, which, if you watch it, will cause you to die in seven days. Rings looks set to bring the story bang up-to-date as that dreaded VHS tape ends up online…
On the eve on the film’s release we caught up with director F. Javier Gutiérrez to find out why it has taken so long to bring Samara back, and just what we can expect from Rings.
How familiar with the series were you before joining the project?
Well when I got the call from the producer I was very familiar because I’m a fan of the first Ring movie. I know the Japanese original one by Hideo Nakata, Ringu. I knew very well the franchise.
Can you remember the first time you saw ‘that’ scene in Ring, how did it affect you?
The sequence of Samara crawling out right? I actually saw it in the American version first. I didn’t even know it was a remake when I walked into the theatre. It was totally unexpected. I think that’s what made that movie brilliant. To plan the mystery, to play with what’s going on, why they are dying after seven days… Once you learn that it is Samara Morgan herself, she’s part of the video herself and starts to crawl out to get you, that sequence is just so good and powerful. I think it’s hard to forget.
That was one of the challenges on this movie, jumping to another movie and recreating the same climax; Samara crawling out of the TV is nearly impossible now because we already know. It was a challenge and we tried to do something that is at least respectful and fresh about the same situation of Samara crawling out.
How difficult was it bringing the series up-to-date? Technology has come a long way in the last few years…
Well we were very careful because we wanted to update to a certain level and deal with those elements, the new flat screens, iPads, computers… We didn’t want to get too crazy in Rings, but we wanted to start to explore the possibility. It’s hard to explain without doing a spoiler, (laughs), but it was quite a challenge. We played with ideas of Samara crawling out of different screens and not making it ridiculous. You know like Samara crawling out of a screen from an iPad for example, how do you do that right? The concept worked back [coming out of the TV] then, but it was definitely a challenge to think of a way to do it differently and make it scary and organic. I think in this one we did a good job.
Why do you think that now is the right time to bring Samara back?
I think the producers, the studio and myself, when we started to have meetings, we all felt that after fifteen years, now was the right time. We are in a society now where you have a phone. You pass through your phone a picture to a friend who at the same time shares the same picture with a load of friends in a group that he has. Then they re-tweet it and in ten days it can become viral and is all over the world.
We’ve tried to do two things in this movie: to accommodate this new movie to the new technologies and the new audiences, and leave some new information about the background of Samara to the people who are fans of the first two movies. It was a combination of that. The technology around that was asking for an updated version to see what that looks like. What will happen now.
What can fans of the series expect to see in Rings?
I would say that the people who are fans from the first and second Ring who know it, they will find a different movie, but at the same time a movie that has the spirit of the first one. Meaning that it feels like a classic horror, it has the same mystery of the first movie – trying to figure out what’s behind the challenge of Samara in this movie. They’ll find pieces of the past of Samara Morgan and it will complete the parcel of her life. In the same way as in Ring 2, we learn a little more about Samara Morgan in Ring 3 [Rings], we’ll learn how she came to be in the world how she is now. How she becomes the monster.
For people who aren’t followers of the first movie, we wanted to do a movie that uses the same premise and the same basis of the first movie, it’s an updated and enjoyable film that you can have a good time watching. You’ll be able to understand the film, it can stand alone, and enjoy the discovery of the past of this ghost girl Samara Morgan.
Have you had a chance to see Sadako Versus Kayako?
Not yet. I’m very curious about it. They put it out when I was in post production with this one. I heard about it and all sorts of fans started to tweet to me about it. I never saw it, I want to check it out now, but it’s not out in Spain at the moment. I can’t wait to see it. I think it’s a very fine concept to put together – two icons of Japanese horror in the same movie.
Should audiences embrace this film, can we expect a sequel?
Yeah. Actually in this movie we explore a lot of things. Some of those things, I’m talking about technology, I’m talking about things we didn’t want to explore in this one because we felt that it was going to be overwhelming for our movies having too much. We have a lot of room to explore those in a following second part of Rings. I think that if the new generation embrace Samara Morgan as we expect, then Morgan can be seen again in Rings 2.
Rings is in cinemas now.
