Good movie but grossly overrated

Absolutely brilliant

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

After watching a mysterious videotape, a woman finds herself cursed to die within a week afterward searches the various clues within the video to find the truth about the tape's origins and connection to a legend about a vicious woman before her time runs out and the curse consumes her.While this one had some really good stuff, overall the flaws here take centerstage. The main aspect hurts this one is the fact that the main storyline is incredibly flawed and makes little sense. As the ghost wants her body found out, the purpose of making a videotape that originates in a backcountry community that plays only on a locally-broadcasted channel that's supposed to generate interest in solving her mysterious disappearance, an event that's counterintuitive to what she really wants. Rather than bringing a discovery to her situation, placing the means of your discovery should come about rather easily rather than going for a more crowd-friendly atmosphere instead of an isolated and partially obscure part of the country is far more ideal and thus setting up the rampage to follow. Likewise, purposefully killing those who are potentially there to help makes the whole point moot as that shrinks the number of those able to potentially help the cause, really leaving the plot quite troublesome. Beyond that, the fact that the film is just so slowly-paced and lacking of ghost action that the middle segment completely eliminates the killing to focus on the investigation into the video tape's images and source. This is spent more on looking for photographs of the missing couple, visiting the different locations of the classmates such as their school or the cabin in particular where they contracted the curse or sitting around attempting to understand the concept of the curse with her boyfriend as she is getting him to believe in the curse and trying to decipher it all, and none of those are crawling with horrific ideas or concepts. These are practically non-events that while building up the mythos around the legend all tend to prevent this one from really getting going leaving this to drag on to the final twenty minutes. Granted, that's great stuff that happens here, but it comes too little too late to save the rest of the film though it somewhat evens it out to make it borderline watchable. The film's at it's best when detailing the creepy and oftentimes downright chilling atmosphere of the tape, offering up plenty of suspense as they slowly work out the cause and details of the tape. Knowing how the visuals were created and how they came to be affixed onto the tape itself offers this one it's best sense of energy and atmosphere as one-by-one all the pieces slowly work themselves together to realize how their journey ties together. From the distorted photographs leading into the idea of the island and the research they conduct their as well as the revelations about the child in the past which starts to play a prominent role in how this one ends up. From the encounter in the well with the body to the stellar and absolutely chilling sequence with the ghost making one last appearance inside their house for a truly shocking and memorable scare. Coupled with an effective ghost design that's really creepy, these hold this one up.Rated Unrated/R: Violence, Language and intense themes of children-in-jeopardy.

A downright creepy, cleverly paced & patiently narrated chiller whose success spawned a trend of Hollywood remakes of Asian horror flicks, Ring (also known as Ringu) doesn't rely on conventional tricks like jump scares or blood-filled gore to frighten its viewers but allows their imagination to do the required job, and lets its ominous atmosphere act as a catalyst.The story of Ring revolves around a videotape that is fabled to bear a jinx that kills its viewers after 7 days. The plot follows a TV reporter who conducts her own investigation, when her niece & her 3 other friends die under mysterious circumstances, and ultimately stumbles upon the ill-fated video herself. With limited time on her hands, she attempts to find a way to lift the curse.Directed by Hideo Nakata, an aura of mystery & menace permeates every frame of this feature and the controlled manner in which its events transpire allows those elements to ingrain itself in the viewers' subconscious. The haunting, surreal & disturbing imagery that make up the contents of the cursed tape carries a mystical power of its own, and manages to deliver the chills despite not revealing much.The entire picture is encapsulated with a grim tone & overcast ambiance, each scene unfolds as if there's a clue hidden somewhere in every frame, and the cold colour palette adds more layers of bleakness to it. Editing is expertly carried out, for it keeps the narrative tightly-wrapped and allows it to unfurl at its own pace. And the cast does a commendable job in their given roles, and play their part with utmost sincerity.On an overall scale, Ring makes each & every one of its aspects work in favour of its story and remains one of the finest horror films to come out of Japanese film industry. Shrouded in complete mystery, effectively sustaining its sinister mood for the entirety of its runtime, and wrapping itself up with an unforeseen twist, Ring may not be scary on a visceral scale but its eerie element will still be an onslaught on the viewers' psyche.

If you were wondering what the difference between Ringu and The Ring is, I 'll try to sum it up for you. You remember that TV series adaption of Stephen King's "IT"? Ringu is a lot like that. There is a lot of reflection scares and horror-mystery elements, but it has such a weak pay off. With the American version, you get significantly better scares and death scenes. I would have been okay with the classic "scream then cut to next scene", but the black and white-invert color thing, too? Any respect or immersion I had was ANNIHILATED by those scenes! I laughed at the death scenes! Those scenes made Ringu is a complete and utter failure of a horror movie! I would still recommend watching it if only to see the original Japanese version, but that's only justification I could give. To be honest, I didn't find the American version all that good either. A tape that takes 7 days to kill you is just not that threatening to me. Now if Sadako were "Final Destination"-ing people near immediately after they viewed the tape, THAT would have been glorious!

Ring is the only J horror I have watched to date. In general, I'm sick and tired of horror movies because they're all the same. Not this one. This nightmarish, chilling and stratospherically creepy horror movie isn't just a great horror movie, but in general a great film. The story is simple: A video tape kills people 7 days after they watch it, and a journalist tries not to become the next victim. It may sound ordinary, but I have never seen such a creepy movie in my life. Rather than jump scares and gore, the movie is filled to the brim with creepy imagery, atmospheric lighting, shiver inducing music and chilling locations. Even though there aren't many actual scares, you forget about it and are still watching through your fingers even when there's nothing going on. It is the best type of ghost story: Simple, clear and effective, and even though VHS no longer exists, it's still utterly terrifying.Without CGI or gore, the film takes normal modern technology and turns it into a living nightmare in a way no other film I've seen has done. As for that final scene, let's just say you'll never look at a TV the same way again. Some may find the film dull, which I can understand, but don't expect loads of repeated scares because you won't get them. It's endless creepy imagery, with one massive scare at the end. This might be the best horror movie of the 90s, and most modern horror films cower in its shadow. The villain, despite little screen time makes a huge dent, and the temperature in the room will drop many degrees every time she appears. A haunting and influential horror bull's eye. Comparing this to the remake is like comparing the altitudes of a plane and a submarine.10/10