Shock vs dread: how J-horror classic Ring (1998) compares to its 2002 Hollywood remake
- The original low-budget Japanese version of the horror film used dread instead of jump scares, was claustrophobic and had a great ending
- The US remake had Naomi Watts playing a strong lead role and 40 times the budget, but lacked subtlety and relied on shock
Warning: This article contains major spoilers.
Directed by Hideo Nakata and based on the 1991 novel by Kozi Suzuki, the 1998 film Ring (aka Ringu) kick-started the J-horror craze of the late 1990s and early 2000s.
The set-up may be simple – a cursed videotape that kills viewers seven days after watching it – but the pay-off is genuinely frightening, as murdered psychic Sadako (Rie Ino’o) crawls through the TV screen to claim her next victim.
Though the film suffers from a weak heroine in the form of reporter Reiko Asakawa (Nanako Matsushima) and some iffy detective work, it retains much of its power 20 years later for three reasons.
First, it relies on dread rather than jump scares, counting down the days towards Reiko’s potential death while refusing to reveal how that death will come about. Second, it has genuine points to make about loneliness and technology.