Adapted from a novel and Japanese film of the same name, “The Ring” comes to theaters just in time for Halloween.

Powerfully chilling and full of anxiety, “The Ring” leaves an impressive trail of psychological scares and frights, but fails to measure up to the high horror bar set by movies like “The Exorcist” and “The Omen.”

The opening reeks of teen-slasher films: Two girls, still dressed in their high school uniforms are sitting on a bed (insert innuendo here), rambling on, sharing useless information.

Their conversation topic changes to an urban legend about a tape that kills you a week after watching it.

One of the girls admits to watching the tape with three classmates, exactly one week prior at a weekend cabin retreat. Said girl dies in a gruesome, unseen manner, rendering the other girl insane and unstable.

The dead girl’s aunt, reporter Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts), goes to the funeral and learns of her niece’s mysterious death.

At the behest of her sister, Rachel goes searching for the facts and learns that her niece’s other friends who saw the tape also died…all at the exact same time.

Before you can say “Unsolved Mysteries,” Rachel goes up to the cabin, retrieves the tape and watches it. Once the tape ends, she receives a phone call telling her that she will die in seven days.

With the clock ticking on her own life, she enlists Noah (Martin Henderson), an old “friend,” to help her figure out the mystery of the images on the dreaded tape.

“The Ring” is a triumph for nearly all involved.

Director Gore Verbinski adds to an eclectic list of directing gigs (“Mouse Hunt” and “The Mexican”) with his latest film.

Verbinski, to his advantage, jumps from horrific image to horiffic image, leaving the audience jarred and unsure of what they just saw.

But his success in creating a creepy atmosphere must be shared with cinematographer Bojan Bazelli.

Bazelli uses the camera to turn what should be a serene landscape into a foreboding setting. One of the most beautiful shots involves the sun setting against a tree with red leaves.

Sunlight permeates the leaves and pours red light through a cabin window. “The Ring” is a remarkable exercise in cinematography.

Screenwriter Ehren Kruger should be praised for fashioning a screenplay both similar and different from the source material. With a captivating thriller like “Arlington Road” already under her belt, Kruger shows limitless potential as a screenwriter.

The performances of Watts and Henderson are top-notch. The attitudes of their characters create a dichotomy of fear and doubt throughout the film.

Of course, comparisons can be expected between “The Ring” and an earlier release, the terrifyingly bad “Fear Dot Com.”

Both movies involve supernatural forces killing people after viewing something, be it a tape or a Web site.

“The Ring” is chock full of suspense, dread, and an impending feeling of doom, while “Fear Dot Com” is crammed full of dull characters navigating their way through a trash heap of a plot.

Unfortunately, several glaring points prevent “The Ring” from rising to the echelons of the horror film hierarchy.

Rachel’s son, Aidan (David Dorfman), is written and played too much like Haley Joel Osment’s character from “The Sixth Sense.” Aidan is far too wide-eyed and creepy for his — or the film’s — own good. His performance comes across as thoroughly uninspired and unoriginal.

When driving home, several questions are sure to be bouncing around inside the minds of the audience: Where did the tape come from? How was it made? Does the supernatural force know you’ve watched the tape? Or, for that matter, even know your phone number?

Despite these glaring errors, “The Ring” is positively unsettling.For some audience members —myself included — the power of the disturbing images and feelings of anguish you will be subjected to is enough to cause nausea and vomiting.

This is a movie best viewed with others — if for no other reason than to share in the stomach pains of your friends.

This kid is too creepy. Aidan (David Dorfman) is even scarier than the mysterious videotape. (Dreamworks Pictures)