Look, I get that it's an Ehren Kruger script (with some uncredited touching up by Scott Frank though!) that tries to overexplain a lot of the creepy supernatural ambiguity of the original's cursed modernity, but Verbinski successfully works triple time to make that literal-minded investigation as formally dynamic and thrilling as one possibly could. The natural lighting + muted waterlogged grey-green color palette (which has been poorly in the digital era but looks great here on 35mm), the impeccably slick control over ominous camera composition/movement and infected-looking production design, all the incredibly sharp subliminal avant-garde cutting/uncanny analog distortion effects that feel like an unnatural ghostly glow and hum hangs over the entire movie. (The new 4K Blu-ray looks so good, Bojan Bazelli the God!!) As wet, miserable, and eerily atmospheric of a horror-procedural as you could possibly expect out of a Hollywood J-horror remake. And it helps that despite the modern aughts horror jolts being of a more conventional nature, you still have Naomi Watts effectively accessing some of that residual fear, sadness and anxiety she had pulling at surreal detective threads in Mulholland Drive, only she's doing it while staring at TV static in a Seattle apartment. The teens need PG-13 horror this scary again, they need Gore. Set him free!!