Following the tragic death of her entire family, Emily has developed survivor's guilt and agoraphobia. She rarely ventures out of her apartment and the only person she sees regularly is Ian, a 15 year old neighbor who has a lucrative business running errands for folks in the building. Determined to beat her fears, Emily finds an online ad for a radical doctor who helps agoraphobics. The doc's advice? Use art to create a doppleganger. And thus Em is born! Soon Emily and Ian begin building a strange friendship with Emily's creepy goth clone. But how is Em supposed to help Emily cope with her agoraphobia?...
Despite outward appearances this is NOT a horror movie. The only film that I can think of to compare it to is "Edward Scissorhands," and even that's a bit of a stretch. "Dead Ring" has many of the hallmarks of a student film, but that's certainly not a bad thing, if you don't mind the snail's pace, surreal plot and an occasionally stilted line reading.
Savanah McMahon gives a pretty solid performance as Emily, but she really shines brightly as Em (and I'm not merely referring to those freaky glowing contact lenses!). As a stranger in our world, Em has an appropriate sense of wonder and child-like innocence - and man, that makeup is awesome! As Ian, Nathan Olson is a bit green, but I wouldn't say his performance is bad - he hits the right notes more often than not, and he could become a good actor with a little more experience. The weakest link is Jacob Olson as Zak, a neighborhood bully who's made it his mission to torment Ian. Of course, it doesn't help matters that Zak's character only has a few brief appearances and adds virtually nothing to the story.
Craig McMahon deserves kudos for his writing (in this day and age, it's no easy feat to come up with a story that doesn't feel like a tired retread), and his direction is usually on the ball (overlooking the numerous roving skyline cutaways which seemed utterly pointless). The musical score (bafflingly credited to "Musicians all over the world") adds to the film's surrealism, though on occasion it overwhelms the dialogue. It's a shame that we don't have a DVD with audio commentary, because this is a movie that would greatly benefit from insight from the filmmakers.
If you're looking for something completely out of the norm and don't mind a plodding pace, I'd highly recommend this little obscurity. It's not without its little problems, but it's certainly better than the endless crap reboots and neverending franchises that the major studios have been bombarding us with for the entire 21st century.
