There are perhaps few horror films from the 2000s that have remained as readily citable and culturally pervasive as that of director Gore Verbinski's The Ring, a genre film that introduced viewers to a certain VHS tape that renders the viewer subject to predetermined death brought upon them by Samara, a supernatural entity of an entirely vengeful nature. Verbinski's American remake from 2002 was based in part on the original Japanese film of 1998, though both versions have their ties to the original novel by horror writer Koji Suzuki (originally published in 1991).
Many viewers and critics found the original Verbinksi remake to be an entirely engrossing and terrifying affair, though its follow up from 2005 was met with lesser fanfare, thus putting an end to the franchise for the immediate future. However, a third film in the American Ring franchise has been in production for sometime now, though now the release date for The Ring 3 aka. Rings has been pushed back yet again.
Rings, after being pushed back from a November 2015 release date to an April 2016 premiere by Paramount Pictures once before, will now hit theaters on October 28th this year instead. The new film from director F. Javier Gutiérrez will feature a story centered around present-day events, picking up in real-time after Verbinski's first installment in the American Ring movie series. The movie will feature an all new collection of characters, as portrayed by the likes of Matilda Lutz (Somewhere Beauitful), Alex Roe (The 5th Wave), and Johnny Galecki (The Big Bang Theory).
Pushing Rings release date back multiple times doesn't exactly suggest that Paramount has that much confidence in the film - and the fact that The Ring 2 was such a critical flop likewise doesn't bode that well for the continuation of this horror film franchise, in general. Then again, releasing the film further back into the calendar year for a more seasonally appropriate theatrical release date could attract more viewers looking for a good scare at the multiplex around Halloween 2016 - and Gutiérrez did show potential wit his previous directorial effort, Before the Fall.
With any luck, Gutiérrez's Rings will manage to pull off the seemingly impossible task set before him, and his movie will be the breath of fresh air that the nearly twenty-year-old franchise so desperately needs in order to remain relevant. Until then, viewers can begin gazing back into the past and revisit Verbinski's seminal thriller of the early 2000s, and maybe even give the original Japanese film version a gander as well.
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Rings will see theatrical release in the U.S. on October 28th, 2016.
Source: Paramount Pictures