DEATH RING (1992)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *uncanny*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *sociological*

DEATH RING-- which by some indications might have been a DTV film-- appeared the year before John Woo's own take on THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME. However, RING's approach is so different from that of HARD TARGET that, whatever the earlier film's failings, it wasn't meant as a mockbuster. Given that RING places its human-hunting activities on a remote island under the control of a madman, it's more likely that the people behind it were simply doing another take on the original GAME story, or on the 1932 adaptation.

As for the creative personnel, I'd speculate that star Mike Norris, billed only as co-writer, was probably the mover and shaker behind the film, given that Norris' co-writer shows no other IMDB credits and the director's only earlier credit in that capacity was a co-directing credit on Donald Jackson's HELL COMES TO FROGTOWN. I don't think Norris himself had any great cachet before or after this movie, but he was almost certainly being sold as a successor to his famous father Chuck.

Former Green Beret Matt Collins (Norris) left the army because he wanted to fight in the field and the brass assigned him to be an instructor. Now he mopes around with his wealthy girlfriend Lauren (Isabelle Glasser), hanging out with his copter-pilot buddy "Skylord" (Chad McQueen, another son of a celebrated actor-dad) and seeking martial validation through survivalist trials. Then Matt and Lauren are kidnapped and transported to a remote island ruled over by sadistic millionaire Danton Vachs (Billy Drago), because Vachs plans to have Matt hunted by a team of wealthy guys who have paid for this privilege before. Drago and his aide-de-camp Ms. Ling (Elizabeth Fong Sung) hold Lauren captive to ensure Matt's cooperation with the competition for the Death Ring.

That's right; "for," not "in." Despite the many action-films that used "ring" to suggest a space in which combat would take place, Vachs not only promises Matt and Lauren freedom if Matt survives, they can also claim the ornate "death ring" from Vachs' hand.

The best thing about this derivative flick are its "comic book" aspects. In contrast to other human-hunting films, the script for RING goes out of its way to make all the hunters slightly weird types-- an Apache Indian, a Chinese gangster, a guy known only as "Iceman," and an American lawyer with a passion for both hunting and Taoist philosophy. Vachs himself hopes that Matt will beat all the men hunting him, so that he'll provide Vachs with a challenge. Like Count Zaroff in the GAME template, Vachs and Ling have a perverse fascination with death. The hunters are fitted with radio transmitters when they're out on the prowl, and at one point, when the two masterminds think a hunter has managed to kill Matt, the villains make out. 

Vachs is one of actor Drago's best silky-voiced villains, which is good because Mike Collins is as dull as dirt, both in terms of the script and in terms of Norris' performance. He also has only basic movie-fighting skills, in contrast to the showmanship of Daddy Chuck, though a couple of the battles with the hunters are better than average. But even the small attempt to give Mike characterization in the opening scenes falls by the wayside. Lauren has a nothing role, but Fong Sung does have a couple of scenes attacking Matt, and she shows some good basic moves. The copter-pal ends up coming to the rescue.

Despite how boring Norris is, I like DEATH RING for its exotic villains, which help usher the film into the uncanny domain.