RINGU (1998)

'Ringu' or 'Ring' for us English folks is the original 1998 film that would go to inspire many many bad remakes here in the US. Luckily, the original film is quite the creep fest and well worth your time. The film has the same plot as its American counterpart with a supernatural video tape that once viewed will lead to your death within seven days. A young reporter and her child become caught within a web of horror, conspiracy, and death as the seventh day gets closer and closer. The film at the time was considered very extreme and while much of it is pretty tame when comparing it to modern horror flicks, it still contains very disturbing subject matter involving child murder, vengeance, regret and sorrow so yeah still not for the extremely squeamish.

The film has a very uncomfortable silence to it, meaning that the sound design, the pacing, and even the cinematography itself is very subtle, very quiet, and very dimmed until the horror moments come with no warning, putting this film high above other thrillers of its kind. The film may be considered too slow for many, but even they should be able to appreciate the overall bizarre feelings one gets when viewing 'Ringu'. I'm not exactly sure how to describe it properly, but I think of it like this: This film feels so much creepier to me because of its foreign nature. Being unable to speak the language on screen, the locations being unfamiliar to me, and the overall tone of the film being unknown, mysterious, and alien is what truly makes these original J-Horror films better than their US remakes.

It may just be the modern YouTube age that has jaded me so on this, but the film can look like an Internet parody at times. When the film works though, hot damn does it work as you can see in the photo above this paragraph. The fact that they achieved that effect with practical means and that it works better than the remake just goes to show less is more. Holy crap that scene is creepy.

Overall, I present this to you: If you think these images throughout the review are creepy, unsettling, or unnerving in any way, you should check out 'Ringu' you'll get all of this in spades. Is the movie perfect? No, not very many films are sadly however its well worth your time, especially with the Halloween season looming over us. Check this one out if you plan to see 'RINGS' this October as well. The film has nothing to do with this film, but I recommend it so that you can have a good comparison and make a better judgment for yourself.