Reviews of The Ring Series ​

The Ring series, also known as “Ringu” or just “Ring”, is considered the founding factor in the west’s interest in Japanese horror and helped bridge the gap between international films. Based on a series of novels written by Koji Suzuki, the films revolve around a cursed videotape that kills anyone who watches it after seven days. Though the first book is a horror­mystery, its two sequels Spiral and Loop are a medical mystery and a science fiction mystery respectively, all having intriguing storylines and plot twists that explore the sinister virus that originates from the videotape rather than a haunting curse. The Ring series has spawned a TV movie, two TV series, a fantastic Japanese film series, a crumby Korean film, and a respectible American movies too. And we’re gonna review all of them in this mega­review.

The franchise reflects a lot of modern fears in society – a fear of technology, urban legends, deadly illnesses (the AIDS scare in the 1980s and 1990s), unexpected pregnancy (as seen in Spiral), and the more traditional scares of evil and monsters. The main antagonist, Sadako Yamamura, takes a lot of inspiration from Japanese mythology and traditions. She is an “onryō”, or a vengeful female spirit, sporting the traditional long stringy hair and wears a white dress. Her origin is based on several folktales, most notably about a woman who is chucked down a well, where she dies and rises as a ghost.

Obviously, there will be spoilers for the books and films throughout these mini­reviews, so be weary.

Ring: Kanzenban (1995) Ring: Kanzenban was the first attempt at adapting Ring as a film, though it feels and looks more like a cheap murder mystery TV episode. Despite being the closest to follow the book, Ring: Kanzenban takes things in some very bizarre directions. It doesn’t really try to capture or even express any sense of dread or intrigue into its own mysteries, and even the iconic cursed videotape’s LSD­like visuals don’t hand out any scares beyond a headache.

Our hero is Kazuyuki Asakawa (Katsunori Takahashi), a journalist who investigates the deaths of his niece and her three friends. This leads him to the urban legend of the cursed videotape, which he finds, watches, and learns he has seven days to live. Teaming up with his old friend Ryuji Takayama (Yoshio Harada), Asakawa investigates the tape’s origins and searches for a way to avert his death. He discovers the existence of Sadako Yamamura, a psychic girl who created the tape and didn’t exactly have the greatest of lives as you’ll soon see. It is discovered her mother committed suicide, and she was later raped by a cruel doctor, and then chucked down a well when he discovered she had testicular feminization syndrome, possessing the privates of both sexes.

In short, it isn’t good. Takahashi spends a majority of the film portraying Asakawa as a whiny blowhard, but Harada brings life to the quirkiness that is Ryuji Takayama. Sadako is played by Ayane Miura, who used to be a pin­up girl, so the film spends a vast majority of its time with Miura being naked onscreen. Like the audience would forget the women were women, so their private parts are flashed on screen every ten minutes or so. Miura manages to capture the innocence of Sadako pre­death, but never masters the creepiness of her character.

But the film’s biggest “WTF” moment is the changing in the story, where Sadako has an incestuous relationship with her own father and may or may not have had a baby with him. But this makes no sense, since Sadako, having testicular feminization syndrome, is unable to give birth. And who thought it would be a good idea to have Sadako have sex with her own dad. I know Miura used to do hardcore movies, but come on, this is The Ring, not a some cheap late night flick. Thankfully not many people remember Ring: Kanzenban, and if they do, it is for the wrong reasons.

Ring: The Final Chapter and Rasen (1999) Though technically they came out after the 1998 film, it made sense to tackle the two television series before the Ring Trilogy. Ring: The Final Chapter is a TV adaptation of the first novel, with Rasen adapting the second Spiral (Rasen being Japanese for “spiral”). They take a lot of liberties with the story, mixing elements of the books and the 1998 film. Let’s talk about The Final Chapter first, but why is it called that? It’s not the final chapter of anything. It has a sequel, and by no means was it the last “chapter” of Ring’s legcy. It follows Ring’s story, taking a lot of pointless detours along the way. Here, the cursed videotape is instead a TV recording of a popular singer’s music video containing hidden imagery that invokes the curse. Asakawa, played by Toshiro Yanagiba, is a much more likeable and developed character than the Kanzenban version, and his son Yoichi gives him a good reason to solve the curse’s mysteries.

As I said, the series drifts near and far from the book and film’s plots, and a lot of characters are altered. Ryuji Takayama, played by Tomoya Nagase, is completely different from his book incarnation. He is broody, serious, and seems to take pleasure in watching people suffer. The character Mai Takano, Ryuji’s student in the books, is portrayed as his weird sister who has a strange psychic connection him. It turns out that Ryuji is both Sadako’s son and the source of the curse/virus, while Mai is the trigger to unleashing it. Yeah, it’s a little bizarre. There are a lot of coincidences and mish­mashing of the plot. Certain characters have their genders swapped, and the whole cast is pretty colourful. Being made in the 1990s, it has a very limited budget and feels a little sluggish in its plot and pacing, but overall, the series is pretty good.

Rasen is quite enjoyable too, again taking liberties with Spiral’s story, mixing the supernatural with the more sci­fi elements of the book. Only a couple of characters return for the sequel, and virtually none of The Final Chapter’s events are mentioned. In this series, a teacher named Andoinvestigates the strange goings on connected to his suddenly pregnant former student, a haunted office where people were murdered, and a criminal named the King of Terror who claims to be the prophesised dark messiah of Nostradamus. Don’t worry, the cursed videotape is in there, but ends up appearing on CD! It turns out Sadako’s plan is to resurrect herself through forced pregnancy. This is the true purpose of the cursed videotape, and Sadako is able to alter the biology of humans with the curse, as told in the novels.

There are a lot of good things going for Rasen. It has a more developed cast of characters than its predecessor, and more heavy hitting themes of responsibility and guilt. Ando’s son Takanori drowned in the sea, and his wife went crazy and is recovering in a mental hospital. You just know she is going to snap at some point, believing Takanori is alive, and the outcome is equally tragic. Sadako uses her DNA to resurrect Takanori as a clone but reveals his body lacks a key factor to remain alive and he will die unless Ando agrees to give her the cursed CD. He refuses and Takanori dies again. Sadako later releases Ando’s wife to murder him, but in a very moving, pivotal moment, Ando expresses guilt for Takanori’s death and makes peace with his wife, much to a confused Sadako’s belief.

Another story element is the origins of the King of Terror, revealing a horrific social experiment performed by an asshole of a pathologist named Rikuta, who abused several children in a messed up version of cops and robbers. The future King of Terror, posing as the jailer, turned out to be a sociopath who did horrific things to the other boys, and uses them one by one as adults to spread his fear and power. There is a fun mystery throughout the series to discover who truly is the King of Terror, with hints to several candidates as the series progresses. There is also an unusual subplot where the protagonists visit a remote village where the residents claim to have been able to resurrect the dead. Overall, both series are pretty good and worth a watch. Sure the budget is cheap, the story drags at times, but the acting is good and definitely an enjoyable series.

Ring (1998) And now on to the main event. Ring is the ultimate Japanese horror movie, and definitely the key that opened the door to western audiences (and remakes). Like previous adaptations, Ring takes a lot of liberties with the story and is perhaps more known that the novels. It was directed and co­written by Hideo Nakata, a rising story in the horror genre, who went on to direct the film’s sequel Ring 2, the American sequel The Ring Two, and another popular Japanese horror film Dark Water, based on another novel written by Koji Suzuki. It cast Sadako Yamamura into cultural fame, and kicked off a string of popular Japanese films like Ju­On and Audition.

Perhaps the greatest element of the film is its scares. There is a constant sense of dread throughout the movie, it is darkly shot, and has an eerie, chilly atmosphere to it from beginning to end. Hideo Nakata proved you don’t need dumb jump scares to make a film terrifying. Other films like The Exorcist have proved this time and time again. Admittedly, the special effects are limited, but it works well, using negative shots of film frames to symbolise death. The version of the film I have is very dark and grainy in some places, making it near impossible to watch certain scenes such as those set at night.

In this version of the story, Asakawa is female, played wonderfully by Nanako Matsushima. Asakawa lives with her son Yoichi, a quiet little boy who has a slightly eerie edge to him. She investigates her niece Tomoko’s death, seen at the start of the movie. Tomoko’s friend Masami witnesses her death and is sent to the looney bin. Reiko goes to a campsite where she finds the cursed videotape, now actually existing as an urban legend, and is promptly cursed. The videotape is very disturbing in its visuals and noise, using eerie sounds that sound like a mix of violins and mosquitoes.

Asakawa turns to Ryuji, played by Hiroyuki Sanada, who is portrayed as her ex­husband in the film. A mixture of his novel and TV self, Ryuji is quite serious but also very calm, intelligent, and has a good sense of humour. Both he and Yoichi share a sixth sense, able to detect strange auras and ghostly visitors. The film goes on to follow the story of the novel with some alterations. Shizuko, Sadako’s mother, gives a public demonstration of her clairvoyant powers, but when a rowdy journalist accuses her of fraud, Sadako kills him stone dead. Yeah, Sadako is that strong. She can kill people just by looking at them. Another ability of Sadako’s is to control the ghosts of her victims, using the unseen spirit of Tomoko to convince Yoichi to watch the video. We later see this happen in Ring 2.

But the most iconic moment of the film is when Sadako comes out of the television at the end of the film. Sadako’s body is laid to rest, Asakawa escapes the curse unharmed, and everything seems calm. That is until Sadako appears on Ryuji’s television, crawls out, and kills him. The audience knows that the fourth wall won’t protect them. The cursed videotape and Sadako emerging from the TV symbolise the fear of technology, and how it would destroy society. Sadako was played kabuki actress Rie Ino, who captures the creepy inhuman qualities of the character. Sadako’s zombie walk was actually created by having Inoue walk backwards, and the footage was reversed. It was apparently so shocking, that audience ran out the theatre and didn’t touch their televisions for days. It was that scary.

The soundtrack was composed by Kenji Kawai, who also did the scores for Dark Water, and other films like Ghost in the Shell. There is a similar creepy tone used in both Ring and Ghost in the Shell, a dramatic yet sombre theme of dread and despair. The film reflects Japan’s clash of traditions and modernism, and how a person of the old world (i.e. Sadako) used the videotape (representing modernity) to get revenge on the world. Asakawa is a very compelling character. She is a very kind woman, but as a journalist and modern woman of the world, she is away from home a lot and unintentionally neglects Yoichi.

There is a duality between Reiko’s home life and the sufferings of Sadako, who was abandoned by her own mother and later murdered by her father. The film follows Reiko as she struggles with her own motherhood and becomes a better parent. There are great moments of this – in one scene, Yoichi is always calling Reiko but she hangs up on him, and later, when facing death, Reiko calls Yoichi and promises to be a better parent. I do particularly like the closing shot, which as Asakawa driving away towards stormy clouds – an apparent nod to the ending of The Terminator.

In conclusion, Ring is a masterpiece of filmmaking and one of the greatest horror films created. There are some issues like unanswered questions about Sadako’s past and certain rules about the cursed videotape (akin to questions asked about the rules in Gremlins 2). Sadako is a very iconic character, and definitely one of my favourite movie badguys. Ring got two sequels, though one was retconned, and a prequel two years later.

Rasen (1999) Not many people know this, but Ring’s original sequel, Rasen, was released simultaneously with the former. The film was directed by George Iida, who was a writer on the flimsy Ring: Kanzenban. The film’s release alongside Ring was meant to reel in viewers who enjoyed the first movie, but ironically, no one went to see it, unaware it had been released at the same time. It is linked closely to the novel Spiral, and completely abandons the spooky eeriness of the first film in favour of a medical mystery drama. The film bombed so horribly at the box office that the film studio that released it pretended it didn’t exist, retconning it from the Ring Cycle and instead brought back Hideo Nakata to direct a new sequel, Ring 2. But Rasen is an essential part of the franchise, even if it isn’t scary and the production quality is naff.

The story of Ring is put on the back burner and barely covered as we instead focus on new characters. Our hero is Mitsuo Ando, a pathologist/surgeon who has to operate on the body of Ryuji, who happens to be his friend. There is an early, disturbing moment where Ryuji’s corpse wakes up on the operating table, sits up, and notices all of his organs have been removed. It’s unnervingly disturbing. Anyway, Ando is mourning the loss of his son Takanori after he drowned, but that is really only a backdrop until the last act of the film. The cursed videotape comes back into play, Ando discovering Ryuji’s connection to it. In a rather unexpected move, Asakawa and Yoichi are killed offscreen in a car crash but it is implied Yoichi was already killed by Sadako. It can be really annoying when characters get killed in­between horror sequels. Just look at the Halloween series.

We discover the true form of the curse is in fact a mutated smallpox virus that triggers heart attacks, but it is never explained how it came to be, since its origins from the novel are never featured in the films. Mai Takano, Ryuji’s student, becomes a supporting character after only having a cameo role in the first film. The film soon bombdives into a very clunky second act, where Ando watches the videotape and has a nightmarish vision from Sadako’s point of view being murdered by her own father.

The big twist of the film is that Sadako’s true purpose for creating the videotape was to be resurrected through biological manipulation. The curse, or virus, would infect a person with a heart blockage which would trigger a heart attack after seven days, but it was different for women. They would be cursed with Sadako’s DNA, and if they had sex, they would become pregnant and give birth to Sadako. Mai learns this the hard way when she sleeps with Ando, and her corpse is later found shoved into a ventilation shaft. The best element of the film is Saeki Hinako as Sadako back from the dead, capturing the sinister yet alluring nature of the character.

The final scenes are a very original take on the apocalypse – Ando makes a deal with Sadako to resurrect Takanori in exchange for spreading the curse. The ending is bittersweet. Ando gets a happy ending but at the cost of the world itself. Ryuji is also resurrected, played by Hiroyuki Sanada again, but refuses to resurrect Asakawa and Yoichi, knowing they would never be able to live in a world he helped destroy. It is never explained by Ryuji has teamed up with Sadako, but it is a clever move to turn her biggest opponent into her biggest supporter.

Rasen is the weakest of the Ring Trilogy, lacking the qualities that made Ring so effective as a movie. The story is mediocre, the production is even more lackluster than the original, there are zero scares apart from one or two moments, and the plot twist never really pays off despite the emotional ending. As said before, Rasen was retconned and replaced by Ring 2, directed by Nakata, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the replacement is any better.

Ring 2 (1999) After the failure of Rasen, the producers went back to the drawing board, rehired the original cast and crew of Ring, and created Ring 2. A very different movie from both its two predecessors, Ring 2 follows an original if at times paper thin story, bringing the supporting characters of Ring to the spotlight, and offers new thrills and chills more in line with the original. The film takes place a week after the first, and has the same feel and tone as before. Ryuji is dead, Asakawa and Yoichi are missing, and Asakawa’s father has mysteriously died after watching the tape to save his grandson from Sadako.

Mai Takano becomes our protagonist, searching for answers following Ryuji’s death, and tracks down Asakawa with help from her colleague Okazaki, played by Yurei Yanagi. J­horror fans may recognise him from the first Ju­On movie. Both Mai and Okazaki aren’t really the most interesting of characters, Mai never going through a proper character arc beyond giving people the cold shoulder, screaming, and fainting. She faints a lot in this franchise. They later go to a hospital to visit Masami, Tomoko’s friend who witnessed her death, and has developed an extreme fear of televisions. Well who wouldn’t?

The film introduces some strange but intriguing supernatural science to the film, with a psychologist named Dr. Kawajiri explaining those who watch the videotape gain psychic powers which can be “drained” by exposing them to water. Sadako’s thoughtography has spread to Masami so she now makes imagery appear in photos and on film. This weird mad science is a very bizarre way to take the film, but considering what Rasen did, it makes sense.

There is a great scene where Masami tries to overcome her phobia, but ends up summoning Sadako on a TV, sending all of the mental patients present into a frenzy. Okazaki is a bit of an asshole. He meets a girl who gets him a copy of the tape, only to end up watching it. Promising to watch it to save her, Okazaki chickens out and hides the tape in his desk draw, causing the girl to die and then come back as a ghost. The scene where she comes to life on film is fantastic and really creepy when it becomes clear the ghost plans to make Okazaki’s life a living hell.

In another subplot, Sadako’s uncle collects her corpse but her face has to be constructed. When the pathologists take photos of the model, each flash reveals a demonic face hidden beneath which only the audience can see. Anyway, Mai eventually finds Asakawa and Yoichi, who has gone mute and his psychic powers have become destructive, influenced by Sadako’s rage. Asakawa has become very reserved and stern, wearing black and even bares a resemblance to Shizuko. The police end up arresting Asakawa, but Yoichi comes to her aid and blasts away the cops with his powers. However, Asakawa is sadly hit by a truck and ends up in a strange limbo where she finds the ghosts of Sadako’s victims including her own father. This hints back to Sadako being able to control the spirits of those who watch the tape. Asakawa’s death is very upsetting, but she is ironically the only character who doesn’t get killed by Sadako.

The film’s third act takes place entirely within Sadako’s old house, allowing for a lot of poltergeist­like activity. Mai and Dr. Kawajiri agree to exorcise Sadako’s rage from Yoichi next to a swimming pool at night. It starts off well but like all mad science experiments, it goes horribly wrong, with the doctor going crazy and committing suicide by jumping into the water with electrical equipment. Yoichi and Mai end up in the well, but Ryuji’s ghost helps them get out. However, Sadako’s ghost emerges from the water and confronts Mai halfway up a rope, asking her why they are allowed to escape before falling back into the well. This would chronologically be the last time we see Sadako until the 2013 film, Sadako 3D, so it was kind of sad seeing her give in to her fate and falling back into her watery tomb.

So, Ring 2 is better than Rasen but doesn’t quite live up to the success of Ring. There are some legitimately scary and moving scenes, all the acting is great, the score is good, and the film is well shot, but the mad science and one too many subplots do drag it down a little.

Ring 0: Birthday (2000) So after a jettisoned sequel, and a better replacement, Ring’s next outing was to answer the unresolved questions of the mythos and to tug on our heartstrings. Ring 0: Birthday is a prequel, taking place thirty years prior to the events of Ring. The film’s story is based on untold parts of the first novel and of the fourth book, an anthology called “The Birthday”. It is a very different film from the others, being more of a tragic drama than a horror film, but does have a lot of scares and tension throughout the picture. Here, Sadako Yamamura is the protagonist and through the next ninety­five minutes, her path to her tragic fate plays out in a slow, depressing story that may make Ring 0 the best of the series.

Set in the 1960s, Sadako, played magnificently by Yukie Nakama, is a shy quiet girl who is naturally beautiful, working as a substitute actress in a theatre troupe. Everyone avoids her for some reason, treating her like a witch, and are having recurring nightmares of a well and haunted by a little girl wandering around the theatre. When an actress is found dead, Sadako is chosen to become the lead in the play, leading to suspicions she may have killed her. Meanwhile, a journalist named Miyaji is following Sadako’s past for unknown reasons, actually hoping to avenge her husband, the idiotic journalist who Sadako killed as a child. She is armed with a recording of the incident, actually an early incarnation of the cursed videotape. This lady is both vengeful and manipulative, willing to destroy Sadako’s life and invoke a witch hunt just to get payback. What a cow.

Meanwhile, while all this is going on, Sadako is caught in an uncomfortable love triangle between herself, the pervy theatre leader, and the kind sound operator Hiroshi Toyama. There is a really adorable moment where Sadako silently confesses her love to Toyama through a window, and he does likewise. Unfortunately, it is doomed to die. Sadako’s powers go haywire during the play, inciting a witch hunt that leads to her being brutally murdered by her colleagues. What a bunch of vindictive assholes. Miyaji reveals Sadako is still alive, and this is where things get a little weird. It is revealed that there are in fact two Sadakos – she split into two identical twins after killing Miyaji’s husband, leading to her mother’s psychotic break and suicide. The one played by Nakama is good and innocent, while her twin, who appears as the little girl, is evil.

Inevitably, the two twins become one, and that is when things get really badass. Sadako eerily wanders through the forest, killing off her tormentors one by one. It is really tense and atmospheric, and as the characters flee through the forest like Jason Voorhees is after them, you know they can’t escape. Sadako stalks them through the trees, blending into the background like she is the Slender Man. Throughout the whole film, you just know that by the end Sadako is going to end up down that well and it will end on a miserable note. Not only does it do that, but for a brief moment it has the cheek to tease you with a potential happy ending, then rips out your heart, kicks you in the balls, and runs off laughing at your misery.

Ring 0 has countless positives. Yukie Nakama is a fantastic actress and makes you both cheer and weep for Sadako, and her romance with Toyama is sweet. There are plenty of chills and scares to be found. There are a lot of similarities to Carrie in basic storytelling and pacing, with a psychic girl who is shunned by others, gets a nice boyfriend, is humiliated, and goes on a destructive rampage. Okay, it is very, very similar to Carrie, but Ring 0 is a very moving tragedy. The twins thing is a little bizarre to explain Sadako’s actions and likely unnecessary, but it does bring an extra degree of the supernatural to the mythos. This is the last film of the original Ring Trilogy, and it certainly takes the series out on a somewhat sombre high note. The only major question not answered is who or what is Sadako’s real father.

The Ring Virus (1999) The Ring Virus was the first foreign take on Ring, a South Korean production, and also notable for being the first joint­venture between South Korean and Japanese film companies. Hooray for them. Too bad The Ring Virus is so incredibly dull, stiff, and lifeless. The director Kim Dong­bin claimed he wanted to go for a more mysterious than scary tone for his film, but there is no trace of awe or curiosity to the film’s story at all. The story seems to be a mixture of all past versions of Ring, mixing elements from the novels and the Japanese films, and even decided to include the whole dodgy incest from Ring Kanzenban. They even claim this film was in production before the Japanese film was even conceived. It is obvious this took a lot of inspiration from the latter, to the point of directly copying shots from it.

As for the story, you know the drill by now – a journalist investigates the death of her niece, finding a cursed videotape, and will die seven days later. The Korean equivalent of Asakawa is statuesque as a character, and her actress gives such a rigid performance. She does not express any reaction to virtually anything, and when she does, it is laughable at best. The character watches the crudely shot and edited videotape, and her final reaction to it looks like someone just farted in her face. She then throws up in a toilet but even that looks staged. The only actor who puts some effort into his performance is Jin­yeong Jeong as Choi Yeol, Ryuji’s counterpart, but is a coroner rather than a university teacher.

Sadako’s counterpart is Park Eun­Suh, who really doesn’t deviate much from Sadako’s background. There is a lengthy scene where Park takes a shower, spots a guy perving on her, and she kills him. Park’s crawling of the TV scene at the end of the film has potential, but set in a room that is huge and brightly lit really takes away any tension. She just kind of steps out of the TV, stands up, and glares at Choi with her weird eyes (which look like she has been drugged up) and cut to white. There is just no effort put into this film. It feels so flimsy on every level – the acting the dull, the characters are boring, the plot drags itself along, the cinematography is strangely bright and colourful, and I can’t even remember what the music is like.

There is no heart or emotional investment in the film. Everyone just stares at each other or around a room like they are either numb or just bored wondering why they agreed to appear in the movie. Did they hire Josh Trank to direct this movie? It does utilise some minor elements from the novel, like when the protagonists go to an archive to investigate Park’s clinical history, and the character Yoshino, portrayed here as a goofball journalist, is sent to rather pointlessly explore Park’s history in the theatre. And why was the film called The Ring Virus, when it is a flat out supernatural film with no traces of the sci­fi or medical elements found in the books.

The Ring (2002) The American remake of Ring is the most well­known interpretation of the franchise in western markets. While a very different package from its Japanese and Korean counterparts, The Ring follows the same basic plot of its predecessors. The Asian themes of the film are comfortably adapted for a western audience, creating an original backstory for our new version of Sadako, which is something straight out of a Stephen King story. Like the Japanese film, The Ring terrified audiences and proved to be a breath of fresh air after the slasher genre slowly burnt itself out over twenty years. The chills, creeping atmosphere, and sense of mystery and dread help unnerve the audience and slowly reveal the secrets of the story. The film was directed by Gore Verbinski, who’d later direct the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. It was co­written by Ehren Kruger, who also wrote the sequel, and the Transformers films.

Naomi Watts stars as Rachel Keller, who, as you might have guessed, is a journalist investigating the death of her niece and the connection to a mysterious videotape. Watts is great in the role, a bit more lively than Asakawa, mixing her strong will, bullheadedness, but also a vulnerable side similar to Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween. Rachel has a son named Aidan. He’s really creepy, often staring around the room. He reminds me of Haley Joel Osment in The Sixth Sense. Aidan has some kind of sixth sense, though it is never really explained what he can do. Rather annoyingly, he withholds importance information to the plot until it is too late. Why didn’t he tell his mother about the true purpose of the tape?

The opening scene is probably the best version to date. The Japanese and Korean films didn’t really have any spooks in the opening scene due to their limited budgets, but it works really creepy here. Rachel’s niece Katie (played by Amber Tamblyn, later to star in The Grudge 2), gets haunted by her TV. She turns it off, only for it to turn itself back on, then she goes upstairs to find her friend Becca, only to find her bedroom is flooded. They do use a jumpscare, but it is so sudden, and Rick Baker’s facial makeup is great. Yeah, Rick Baker helped with the design of the movie. The shrivelled up corpses and other deformed appearances are brief but memorable.

So, Rachel finds the tape in an old mountain campsite. Kind of like Camp Crystal Lake from Friday the th 13 . The videotape is quite impressive. It has this surreal, David Cronenberg­esque quality to it. The​ ​ imagery is a bit more straightforward that the vagueness of the Japanese videotape, but there is an otherworldly essence to this one. However, the videotape does not look like it was actually recorded on video. It looks more like a digital recording with some minor editing thrown in. I am fascinated to how they the images though. They’re great.

Rachel recruits her ex­boyfriend Noah to help, played by Martin Henderson. He really doesn’t have much of a screen presence, but I do like his character development with Aidan. Rachel investigates the tape’s origins, and it is here that we meet Samara Morgan, the American version of Sadako. Physically, she is based on Sadako’s evil twin from Ring 0, having the iconic long dark hair and white dress adapted from the Japanese onryö. Samara is played by Daveigh Chase, better known as the titular character from Disney’s Lilo & Stitch and also Spirited Away. Daveigh is just fantastic, and perhaps the most popular horror badguy since Hannibal Lecter. There is a very clever manipulation of the audience’s perceptions – we are led to believe she is a sympathetic character with uncontrollable powers, but the film’s ending implies she may be a complete sociopath after all, manipulating both the characters and the audience the whole time.

We learn she was adopted by a pair of horse ranchers, but her powers drove her mother crazy, forcing her father, played by Brian Cox, to lock her up in the barn. But Samara then mentally assaulted the horses, causing them to leap off cliffs into the sea. Speaking of horses, there is a disturbing scene where Rachel is on a ferry, and upsets a horse, who escapes its pen and leaps over the side of the ferry to a bloody death. Despite the occasional jump scare, the film made some efforts to put actual scary scenes in the film without the need to splatter the walls with guts. The film feels like a tribute to Alfred Hitchcock at times, having the same pace and surprises similar to those in his great movies. One extended shot pays homage to Rear Window, and another to the shower scene in Psycho.

I love the score composed by Hans Zimmer. The sombre theme song using violins is really unnerving but melancholic too. Of course, the big highlight is when Samara crawls out of the TV to kill Noah. It isn’t as slow as the Japanese version, but is definitely heartstopping. Daveigh Chase walked backwards like Rie Ino did and then it was rewound to give that creepy, inhuman walk. A lot of people questioned why Samara looks taller after she crawls out, but it is likely because she was played by stunt actors.

The Ring is a fantastic film in many ways, but the Japanese film is slightly better, offering more subtle scares and doesn’t resort to the clichés of modern western horror films. The acting is great all around, the tone and music set the mood, the cinematography is excellent, I love Samara, and even the weird blue tint covering the whole film only adds to the gravitas of the movie.

Rings (short film) Featured on the DVDs for The Ring and its sequel is a short film called “Rings”. The upcoming 2016 film is also going to be called Rings, so there may be future confusion for which title is which. Anyway, Rings is set between the first and second films, and serves as a short, sweet, and effective horror piece. It is purely made for scares and portrays Samara at her scariest. It mixes all types of frights – jump scares, a little bit of gore, and most importantly, suspenseful scares. Rings was directed by Jonathan Liebesman of all people, who’d go on to direct the prequel to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake, Wrath of the Titans, and 2014’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle film. He makes a surprisingly good director here, so how did he gone to make such poorly received movies?

The film’s plot is quite simple. Copies of the videotape start to spread across America, leading to a subculture being formed by students called “Rings”. Several teenagers all take turns watching Samara’s video and then have to record what they see over the week. If they get too scared before the seventh day, they can chicken out and pass on the tape to the next in the ring. There is a great urge to find out what happens on the seventh day, but apparently no one has made it. How obvious is the end result? You copy the tape or you die. Why is there such a big mystery? Our lead Jake, played by Ryan Merriman, who joins the cult because he has the hots for a girl named Vanessa. But, man, she is such a cow. When Jake tries to call it quits, she prevents him from handing it over to another person just so she can see what happens on the seventh day.

There is actually a website used to promote the second film which was “made” by the members of the ring. It is still up til this day (http://www.she­is­here.com/main.html). There are some great moments in ​ ​ the short. There is a scene where Jake watches footage of a man encountering Samara on the sixth day, and she foreshadows the next film where she whispers Rachel’s name and the man assumes she is her mother.

Another scene looks like it was shot by Danny Boyle. Jake goes into a room to find it is raining sideways, and plays around with the puddle on the wall, only for Samara to leap out and try to drag him into the water. However, the short can get a little silly at times, particularly when Jake vomits up a giant CGI centipede. The film is very psychological, following Jake as he becomes increasingly unnerved by the videotape’s content, and he goes to extreme lengths to try and free himself from it, even trying to play the tape in a TV store only to get kicked out by the savvy security guard. Another thing that no one has even tried before is attempting to stop Samara from exiting the TV. Jake smashes his television, only for Samara to try and emerge from his video camera while he is recording.

Rings is good short film, offering plenty of chills in its short run time and good performances all around. The short ends on a cliffhanger, actually resolved in the opening minutes of The Ring Two.

The Ring Two (2005) The Ring Two is a movie that doesn’t know its own identity. Gore Verbinski left to direct the Pirates movies, and who should replace him but noneother than Hideo Nakata. After directing two of the Japanese films and Dark Water, you would think he would make some magic with The Ring Two. Well, it is a bit of a palaver, trying to capture the feel of an Asian horror movie while wrapped around a story that is trying to follow a more western direction. A lot of people don’t like the sequel, but it really isn’t that bad.

Naomi Watts is back as Rachel Keller, now living in Astoria, Oregon six months after the first film’s events. Aidan acts a little more like a normal kid, and has adopted a talented for photography. As you might suspect, the cursed videotape comes back into Rachel’s life when she finds out Jake has died. But when she inspects his body, Samara jumps out the bodybag and says “I’ve found you!” Rachel burns the tape, only for Samara to break the rules of her own curse and “flies” into Rachel’s TV and slowly starts possessing Aidan, giving him hypothermia in an attempt to fully take control. It takes Rachel ridiculously, uncharacteristically long to pick up on what is going on. And this is after Rachel and Aidan get attacked by killer deer. Yes, killer CGI deer. This is likely supposed to pay homage to the crazy horse scene from the first film.

Rachel tries to protect Aidan, but putting him in a bath only ends worsening the situations and she is accused of child abuse. There is a journalist named Max, who is meant to be the secondary protagonist, but he does literally nothing in the story. Rachel tracks down Samara’s biological mother, who is played by Sissy Spacek. Well, the similarities to Carrie have now come full circle. We learn from a nun that Samara’s mother tried to drown her as a baby, claiming she wanted to be drowned. This goes back to the hint that Samara’s father isn’t human. Carrie tells Rachel the only way to stop Samara is to put her back in the well, though in this case, it is in the well seen on the videotape.

Meanwhile, Samara has possessed Aidan and is now obsessed with making Rachel her new mother. Aidan talks to a doctor and in a very long scene, essentially pushes the doctor to commit suicide through lethal injection. The idea is that Samara floods the doctor’s mind with horrific imagery, but don’t see any of it. It is just cutting back and forth to Aidan and the smiling doctor looking at each other til the latter kills herself. If they were trying to convey a sense of subtlety or tension, it just doesn’t work. The last act is surprisingly sad and scary at the same time. Rachel drugs Aidan and drowns him in the bath to exorcise Samara. The girl finally gets her happy ending only for Rachel to snatch it away at the last minute.

It is the ending scenes where the film’s slow burn really picks up. Rachel is dragged into Samara’s monochromatic world and climbs out of the well. Samara doesn’t take too kindly to her new mummy abandoning her and crawls up after in a really eerie, spider­like way. Sadly, Daveigh Chase didn’t reprise her role beyond reused footage from the first film, but the stuntwoman who plays Samara, Kelly Stables, does a fantastic job showing off her contorting skills. But then the film takes a big dump all over itself when Rachel seals Samara in the well, and delivers what feels like a stupid cheesy one­liner: “I’m not your f*king mummy!” It is just like in Halloween Resurrection where Busta Rhymes was the one who finished off Michael Myers.

Acting wise, Naomi Watts carries just about the entire movie on her own, really showing off her acting skills, and you can sympathise with a majority of the characters. You feel sorry for Rachel, Aidan, and Samara throughout the film. David Dorfman does great as Aidan (and when he is possessed by Samara), and Sissy Spacek gives an enjoyable role in the one scene she appears in. The subculture surrounding the tape could have been explored, but it looks like we’ll be getting that when the 2016 film is released. There is still the mystery about who or what Samara’s father is, but since Sadako’s true parentage was never revealed, Samara’s may not be resolved either.

Hideo Nakata does the best he can with what he has to work with. He tries to capture a quiet atmosphere in a lot of scenes or instil a strange sense of mystery to the plot, though with minimal success. The audience knows ten minutes in that Samara is trying to possess Aidan, but Rachel spends nearly an hour trying to put two­and­two together. It’s when Rachel sets out to find Samara’s mother that the film becomes interesting. At times, the film feels like Dark Water with a lot of similar ideas – undead girl wanting a new mother, water as a weapon, etc. It feels a lot like Ring 2 in some respects, having a lot of ideas but not entirely sure where to take them.

Sadako 3D (2012) With the conclusion of the American films, we didn’t hear anything from Sadako for several years, until 2012 when it was announced a new Japanese film was being made. I turned out Koji Suzuki had returned to the series and written two new novels called “S” and “Tide”. They haven’t been released yet in English, and I’m still waiting to read them. Yesiree, Sadako was making her return to the land that made her a household name. I love the marketing campaign for Sadako 3D. A giant model of Sadako on the back of a truck driving around Japan, and Sadako herself was invited to provide the opening pitch for a baseball game. Of course, the big event was the movie itself, but the end result is a disappointment.

Where to begin? The film feels like a soft reboot of the series, making no references or indication it is a continuation of the trilogy and delves off into its own crooked story. The whole thing was made like people just wanted to make a shoddy 3D film based on an established franchise. Okay, it wouldn’t be the first time a horror franchise has been resurrected to make a quick buck. The story has potential but never really goes anywhere, ignores all parts of the mythos beyond Sadako was thrown down a well, and leaves too many unanswered questions and plotholes – very few are actually answered in Sadako 2.

Sadako 3D’s worst element is, well, the 3D. This was made on the tail end of Hollywood going nuts about 3D following the success of Avatar (and we are still seeing it continue today). None of the 3D looks the least bit well made, there is a strange use of slow motion when characters fall from a great height, and the film constantly relies on Sadako crawling out of televisions to remind the audience what the character is best known for. Again, and again, and again. Sadako is a fully fleshed out character with numerous powers, a backstory, and even a personality, but the film chucks it all out to remind, we, the stupid audience, that Sadako is scary because she can slide on out of a TV like someone trying to a squeeze through a cat flap.

Anyway, to the story, based on the fifth novel “S”. The cursed videotape takes the logically step and ends up online, only it isn’t the videotape, but rather a suicide video posted on Japan’s equivalent of YouTube. The video was posted by Seiji Kashiwada, a psychotic artist who plans to use the video to resurrect Sadako. Rather than the seven day limit to copy the tape and show it to someone else, the watcher will suddenly commit suicide or will be influenced by Sadako into killing themselves. The death scenes are just weak and weird. Our first casualty walks in front of a truck, but the scene is so unrealistic that it is hilarious, and the guy’s laptop floats away into the air like it is a leaf.

Our protagonist is a teacher named Akane Ayukawa, played by Satomi Ishihara. Akane has a troubled past, but is supported by her boyfriend Takanori Ando (who is Mitsuo Ando’s son in the book). Takanori is played by Koji Seto of Kamen Rider fame, a legacy shared with Kashiwada’s actor Yusuke Yamamoto. Akane learns of the suicide video after one of her students allegedly commits suicide by jumping out a window, though actually pushed out by Sadako. We meet a couple of cops named Koiso and Nakamura, who are investigating the suicides, and learn about Kashiwada by speaking to his creepy landlady, who claims the world is a big lie (a nod to Loop?). The cops are the most likeable of the cast, Koiso not being very tech savvy and often is confused by Nakamura’s slang. We also meet Takanori’s relative Enoki, who really wants to watch the video.

For some reason, whenever people find the website containing the video, an error screen pops up. Why would Sadako and Kashiwada want to hide the video? Anyway, Akane eventually watches the video and starts getting stalked by Sadako, all the while screaming and being accosted by cheap jump scares. There is very little atmosphere beyond a couple of scenes. The CGI is just pitiful. Most of Sadako’s scenes involve awful computer­generated hair trying to ensnare Akane, even looking like tentacles in some shots. Characters start getting killed off in very bizarre ways. Nakamura abruptly dies, apparently swallowed by a black wig and then shoots himself. Enoki also dies, hanging himself, but they used a weird mannequin with an extended neck. It looks ridiculous.

We eventually learn why Sadako is targeting Akane. In a surprise twist, it turns out Akane has psychic powers of her own, namely a sonic scream, which used as a child to defend her classmates from a psychopath but was ostracized as a result. She planned to commit suicide but a young Takanori convinces her not too and they end forming a friendship. Akane is kind of an alternate “what if” take on Sadako, had she had someone there to help her with her powers. It turns out Sadako wants to use Akane as host to be reborn and get revenge on the world. Takanori is eventually captured by Sadako, leading Akane and Koiso to locate the well in what I assume is meant to be Izu.

However, rather than being a holiday resort, an abandoned shopping complex appears to have been built around the well. What continuity are they following? Then, things just get stranger. Sadako’s hand emerges from the well, but it turns out to be a strange grasshopper­like mutated undead woman with ridiculously long legs. See, Kashiwada has been murdering women and chucking them down the well as potential hosts for Sadako, so why the heck are they rising from the grave as mutant monsters straight out of Silent Hill? The film goes into a long­winded yet tense chase sequence, where Akane uses her powers to destroy the Sadako wannabes and even has a brief Buffy moment where she stabs one with a pole.

Sadako eventually shows up, briefly reminding the audience that she is a sympathetic character and tries to find a kindred spirit in Akane, intending on becoming one with her to get revenge on the world. Her actress isn’t bad, but for some reason, Sadako now appears as a human, has demonic red eyes, and wearing shoes. She possesses Akane, consuming her in a giant hairball until the captured Takanori breaks the phone containing Sadako. And then the film just ends, aside from a cryptic teaser with Kashiwada’s creepy landlady beside Sadako’s well and a CGI moth flying at the camera. If this is meant to be foreshadowing the sequel’s plot, it is being way too vague.

Sadako 3D is a very flawed movie, attempting to reintroduce the franchise, but it primarily focuses on Sadako’s iconography that made her a household name. The acting is good and you can at least care for a couple of characters. The special effects are terrible and any unresolved plot threads are being deliberately held back for the sequel. This isn’t The Amazing Spider­Man.

Sadako 2 (2014) The direct sequel to Sadako 3D and the most recent installment in the Ring franchise until the new “Rings” movie from America arrives in cinemas. One thing I’ve always admired about The Ring is doing something new with each film or version of the story, and hasn’t jumped the shark yet like so many other horror franchises. Sadako 3D followed logic and put a variation of Sadako’s cursed videotape on the internet but was bogged down with cheesy acting and moments, rubbish special effects, unexplained plot threads, and the heroine running away from Sadako spider monsters…okay that bit there was the closest the franchise came to jumping the shark. But Sadako 2 takes a more sombre, melancholic, mood piece somewhere along the lines of Ring 0, being more of a drama than a straight out horror film. You could even mistake it for not being a Ring film half the time.

Five years after their encounter with Sadako, Akane and her boyfriend Takanori have had a baby girl named Nagi, but she was placed in the care of Takanori’s sister Fuko. Akane is apparently dead and Takanori has dumped all parental responsibility on Fuko, who struggles to be a motherly figure while studying psychology and dealing with childhood trauma related to her mother’s bath tub suicide. Nagi herself is a quiet, emotionless, creepy four­year old who is bullied at preschool and draws creepy drawings that seem to predict when people will die.

When strange things start happening around Nagi, Fuko discovers the existence of Sadako and Nagi may or may not be her child, created by Sadako’s attempt to be reborn in the previous film. In a subplot, the cursed video seems to have been scrapped all together and a glitchy curse that kills people instantly or influences them to commit suicide. There is also an asshole policeman looking to kill Sadako, after his fiancé kills herself in the film’s prologue.

Some lessons have been learnt from the first film but in doing so, more problems have been created. The writers realised there was more to Sadako and The Ring than just being a dead girl coming out of a TV and drew back from the gimmick. So much in fact that Sadako is virtually nowhere to be seen in the movie. They talk about her a lot but only has a minor role in the story, and while contained, she is laying out other plans behind­the­scenes that are focused on as part of a red herring involving Nagi and at the end, the big reveal is vague and confusing.

I can safely say that the story is an improvement over the last one, having a more personal investment with the characters, and has a melancholy, foreboding atmosphere about it. The scares are more fitting for a Japanese horror, relying on atmosphere and tension rather than jump scares or flashy gore, though both are used occasionally. The best scene is the subway massacre where several people are murdered instantly by the curse and one lady is possessed by Sadako and attacks with long hair. There is also the clever misdirection that Nagi is either a reborn Sadako or her child, since she spends most of her time being quiet, creepy, and closely associated with death.

Aside from Nagi and Seiji Kashiwada, most of the characters are paper thin. Fuko starts off as a rather blasé character, spending the film looking doe­eyed, confused or asking questions. But she does get better as the film goes on, caring for Nagi and sympathises with her since she lost her own mother at a young age. The surviving characters from the last film have barely anything to do, though at least Akane and the disabled Detective Koiso have reasons why, while Takanori spends the movie looking lost and clueless. We later find out that Akane is alive, but in a coma, keeping Sadako imprisoned and will awaken if Nagi is brought to her. But that doesn’t explain why Takanori is acting like an asshole towards his own daughter. He has to pretend to hate his own daughter to protect her? What a moron.

Nagi is the heart of the movie, and her actress Kokoro Hirasawa, does a really fantastic job as the character. Her acting is very genuine and sweet, and Nagi is a very sympathetic character. There is a harrowing scene where Fuko considers chucking Nagi off a bridge, but Nagi starts crying in her arms and finally opens up to her aunt about her ability to see people die. It is very sad and well acted by both performers. She is also a reflection on a what if scenario had Sadako been in a different position in life rather than the one who that led to her death and ghoulification. The vengeful cop is a very boring and stupid character, and how he just comes out of thin air to be the main antagonist in the last act is completely out of left field and makes me hate him.

At times the film is bogged down with a lot of padding and the middle act slouches quite a lot with a number of pointless scare scenes, though the scene where Fuko is hiding from Nagi is a little unnerving. There a few plot holes and threads from the last film that continue to be confusing and cryptic. Like who is that landlady supposed to be, what did she tell Kashiwada, and does she have psychic powers? What was with the ending and what are Sadako’s future plans? What happened to Takanori? In a whole, Sadako 2 is a better movie than the first, but pales in comparison to the original trilogy, upping the stakes and film quality but still spending too much time floundering around trying to figure out where it wants to take the franchise.

The Future Well, in 2016, we are getting not one but two Ring­related films. The first is Sadako vs. Kayako, a ​ ​ crossover monster mash between Sadako and the antagonists of Ju­On (The Grudge). The trailers look very promising and I hope it gets a western release. The American series is getting a sequel as well, dubbed Rings, and appears to be similar to the short film. However, I am a little concerned about ​ ​ this sequel. The film was delayed by six months for a Halloween release, and there hasn’t been any marketing or publicity at all. However, Paramount Vce Chairman, Rob Moore, suggested that if Rings is a success, it may become a yearly event, replacing Paranormal Activity as Paramount’s major horror franchise. I’m definitely up for that but the downside is that they might run Ring into the ground. Of course, there is plenty of material to adapt, or will they go the same way of the Halloween franchise and go on a self­destructive series of rubbish sequels til it’s a shadow of its former self. I hope not.