When you ask most horror film fans what scene sticks with them the most for bone tingling terror, many will mention the crazy vision of the long haired pyscho coming out of the television. Afficinados of the horror genre are probably already aware of the film before it is mentioned as the scene from The Ring is an iconic piece of cinema.
Released over a quarter of a century ago, in 1998, The Ring tells the story of an estranged couple’s quest to find out what happened to the woman’s niece who died with her friends after watching a horror videotape. A journalist named Reiko, played by Hiroyuki Sanada, finds the tape, watches it, and is informed in a subsequent phone call that she will be dead within a week.
The late 90’s film from Japan was named Ringu and heralded a wave of Japanese horror releases collectively known as J-horror. It influenced countless remakes and films worldwide after it was highly praised for its plot. It is widely considered to be a revoluntionary film in the Asian horror genre and gained a strong fanbase from across the globe.
The motion picture moved away from the prevalent gore and jump scares of Western horror at the time, and instead focused on psychological terror, which it capitalised to great effect. This, combined with an eerie atmosphere and minimalist scare, made it a hit around the planet, where it grossed ¥1 billion in Japan alone.
With a run time of one hour and 36 minutes, the film also won critical acclaim from several well-known movie reviewers.
Top critic Paul Byrnes from the Sydney Morning Herald raved: “Its strength is in its simplicity and cultural beauty.”
While The Daily Telegraph’s Alan Stanbrook wrote: “Almost nothing terrible is shown. The real horror lies in the viewer’s anticipation.”
According to Time Out, the film is one of the best 100 movies of all time and has “possibly the scariest scene in cinema history”, but with such a high score on Rotten Tomatoes (98%), many would rank the movie much higher.
Community reviewer Ian H said the film was: “Dark, disturbing, but not super terrifying, relying more on building pressure than jump scares.”
While James B preferred the American remake: “While it’s undeniably iconic, I found the American remake more interesting and this one slightly boring, but that is not to say it was bad.”
Adam B scored the movie very high and added: “A true classic of foreign horror, Ringu is a masterclass of mystery, twists, and turns as the characters explore great set pieces with (mostly) great acting. While tame, the tension more than makes up for it. Just to be the flower on top, this movie’s climax contains possibly one of the best scenes in all of horror history.”
