Alright, let’s jump in with both fists.
The girl ghost in the white dress who seeks revenge through technology was already kind of a genre of its own by the time the film came out. The casual horror observer said “Oh, the Ring.” The more interested horror fan raised his nose at the casual observer and said, “No, Ringu!” The seasoned horror fan was too busy shouting curse words followed by, “Not another angry ghost in a white dress!”
Let’s face it. What Lies Beneath was pretty much the same kind of movie, but without anything to make it genuinely frightening or even interesting.
Me, being off in my own world, grinned. “Yes! That’s the guy who did House on Haunted Hill!” Then, with that kind of silly anticipation you can only get when about to pay someone with real currency to scare you senseless, I talked the woman who eventually became my wife into going to see FearDotCom together.
Malone comes back with his visual style as well. The film is built around nightmarish hallucinations, which is visual style Malone seems to sincerely enjoy working with.
Did the movie deliver? At its best, absolutely.