A mysterious videocassette filled with nightmarish images is making the rounds in the Seattle area, killing those who have seen it within a week. When newspaper reporter Rachel Keller's (Naomi Watts) niece is inexplicably found dead after viewing the tape, she uses her investigative skills to unlock the mystery and maybe even turn it into a story. After watching the tape herself, she finds herself on the other end of an ominous phone call telling her that she has 7 days left to live. Now Rachel's deadline has taken on life-threatening proportions, but the stakes are raised even higher when her 6-year-old son (David Dorfman) also becomes cursed by the deadly video.

The 1998 horror film "Ringu" may have been a phenomenon in Japan (spawning a
feature franchise and a television series), but writer Ehren Kruger ("Arlington Road," "Scream 3") and director Gore Verbinski ("Mouse Hunt," "The Mexican") seemed to have missed the boat with this American remake. Sure, there are plenty of spooks and thrills, but for the most part, the film feels contrived, wildly uneven and way too derivative of modern horror classics like "Seven," "Scream," and "The Blair Witch Project." Heck, there's even a creepy kid who looks like he stepped right out of "The Sixth Sense."

After spending the better part of the last decade supporting obscure films like "Tank Girl" and "Dangerous Beauty," Naomi Watts finally took the high road with a remarkable performance in last year's mind-trip "Mulholland Drive." Though the material here doesn't give her nearly as much to work with, she still remains effective enough to stand out in an otherwise mediocre film. The same can't be said about Martin Henderson, who's a relative non-presence as Watts' scruffy, floppy-haired ex who also finds his clock ticking after watching the tape.