Take “Stir of Echoes,” add the kid from “The Sixth Sense” and throw in an extra ending, and you pretty much have the entire plot of “The Ring.”

Although the story has giant plot sinkholes that just become deeper the more you think about them, director Gore Verbinski does an excellent job of adapting the 1998 Japanese movie of the same name to effectively seduce American audiences with frightening thrills. This being said, however, “The Ring” is scary as hell.

The movie begins with a scene strangely reminiscent of “Scream,” but the audience is set up for the fright of the rest of the movie. The simple and somewhat corny idea behind “The Ring” is that after you watch a mysterious videotape, you die seven days later.

Naomi Watts stars as Rachel, the curious reporter who investigates the tape-related deaths and becomes convinced she is going to die after watching the tape. Watts becomes desperate in her search for answers as her remaining days tick away and she begins to hallucinate. Watts does a decent job of the curious reporter-type along the lines of her performance in “Mulholland Drive.” However, she does not add a whole lot of suspense to the plot.

Child actor David Dorfman plays Aidan, Rachel’s son, who is a dead ringer for Haley Joel Osment in “The Sixth Sense.” Dorfman plays the part flawlessly and delivers the eerie lines precisely, even if his role is a bit overused. Martin Henderson plays Noah, an old flame of Rachel’s who reluctantly gets sucked into the situation and does a decent job of supporting Watts’ character.

Although riddled with plot holes, “The Ring” does a good job pacing the thrills to discourage plot contemplation. At times, though, it seems the director watched a few too many episodes of “The X-Files.”

However, the key that makes “The Ring” successful is the coupling of the mystic story line with the entire bag of cinematic and visual tricks in the horror movie arsenal. “The Ring” stands out in this regard as a surreal revelation of visual ghastliness that bores into your consciousness. The visuals on the tape itself are masterfully put together in a horridly portentous vision of dementia. During the several times throughout the movie where the tape is shown, the audience is sucked into the characters’ struggle to get away from the nightmarish visions the tape brings.

Beyond the killer tape, the movie is chock full of frightening split-second visions of terror that leave the audience in suspense throughout the duration of the movie. The director also utilizes maximum auditory suspense with eerie background noise and sharp contrasts during the intense thrills. Although many of these tricks are utterly cheap, Verbinski effectively managed to scare the hell out of the audience, add in his psychological thrills and wrap it up in a surprise ending all without making the majority of the audience feel violated.

As one of the few movies during which I have actually heard someone scream extensively in the audience, and also as one that holds up a second time around, “The Ring” is on top of many movie buffs’ “scariest movie ever” lists, including my own. “The Ring” is a definite must for adrenaline junkies and thrill-seekers and also claims the prize of an excellent date movie, as long as you don’t mind losing circulation from clutching your partner’s arm too hard.

“The Ring” will make you think again about watching that unmarked videotape on the shelf. For those who do venture to see this movie, I recommend a comedy video waiting at home to keep the nightmares at bay.