Ringu aka Ring (1998) Review

Ringu Ring 1998

It can take a lot to strike fear in the heart of a hardcore genre fan. Be it a proclivity for the macabre or simple desensitisation, finding something truly terrifying is often no mean feat. Despite this, every fan will happily tell you the one film they remember that scarred them for life, usually something caught at a young age that sparked dread and intrigue.

Ring 1998

For me this was Ringu – the Japanese horror from 1998. I’d been at a sleepover at a friends and my mum had the bright idea to watch a horror film alone. It had freaked her out so much she had barely slept but naïve pre-teen me was sure it couldn’t be that bad. Over 20 years later, I can confirm that Ringu still stands up as a truly terrifying example of carefully crafted Asian horror.

The film focuses on reporter and single parent Reiko (Nanako Matsushima) as she investigates the urban legend of a cursed video tape. Discovering that a group of teenagers all died inexplicably a week after watching it, she traces their movements to the cabin they visited and finds the unmarked tape.

Understandably, Reiko doesn’t appear to believe the stories – and without hesitation slots the tape into a VCR player. The images contained within the nondescript tape are seemingly unconnected and bizarre. A woman gazes into a mirror wistfully as she brushes her hair, shuddering letters emblazon the word ‘eruption’ and the tape closes with a dilapidated looking well before breaking to static.

Ring 1998

The ambiguity is unnerving, and as Reiko tries to process what she has just seen – her eye catches the reflection of a figure in the television and the phone begins to ring.

With a week to break the curse, Reiko enlists the help of her ex-husband to unravel the mystery of the enigmatic tape, desperately trying to save her son who has also watched it.

Ringu has some incredibly unnerving moments, with the iconic television scene near the films conclusion showing that sometimes slow and subtle can have a much more profound effect than gore or violence. The broken and ghoulish Sadako drags herself through the television, her bloodied, fingernail-less fingers pulling her mangled body along slowly. It’s an image that will forever be burned on my retinas and still makes me furtively glance at the television at night.

Ring 1998

Ringu was probably the first piece of Asian Horror cinema to make a really big impact in the West. Its success led to a remake (that I personally feel doesn’t come close to the original) and subsequent Hollywood adaptations of other Asian horrors such as The Grudge and The Eye.

There is a reason it made such an impact and is honestly up there as one of the scariest films I’ve seen. It’s essential viewing for any horror fan, though you may not look at your television screen the same way again.

Movie Rating:★★★★½ 

Trailer:

YouTube video
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Rebecca Barr

http://crimson-curse.com

Rebecca is a film enthusiast from Glasgow. Having grown up loving all things spooky she developed a passion for horror and genre cinema. You can find her on Twitter @rekkah and Instagram @rekkah

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