RINGU - THE HALLOWEEN HORRORS COLLECTION

By Guest Reviewer The Creepy Concierge 

Asian Horror cinema as a genre had long been well regarded by the international cinephile audience but it was Director Hideo Nakata’s RINGU (1998) that flicked some kind of switch and caught the attention of the movie-going public at large.

This slim, trim, eerily minimalist tale of a ghost girl, a haunted videotape and a VHS virus that switches your face into contortionist mode and kills you dead took the world by storm. And rightly so. It has everything a great horror flick should have. A sympathetic heroine played by Nanako Matsushima (Almost a Miracle and The Crimes that Bind), an easily recognisable family dynamic, an intrusion into the real world from the other side, a ticking clock and a seemingly unstoppable enemy. It pulls off the harder-than-you think trick of making the commonplace a threat and the supernatural a palpable force that we might just have to learn to live with. 

Inspiring a US remake starring Naomi Watts, which is also worth a look, there is just so much to enjoy and be terrified of here.  Great performances all round including from the child actor Rikiya Otaka (One Year in the North and Catharsis) pull us into the family and convince us that we are truly with on this terrifying journey into the unknown. RINGU is brilliantly lensed with a real sense of creeping dread leaving we the viewers with a distinct feeling of unruhe. Production design is plain and simple, elegant and effective, and there is a real sense that banal evil could be lurking in the most innocuous and common places. Technical is rounded out by a scratchy, itchy score that will truly make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.  

RINGU is a rare thing in cinema today. An actual masterpiece that you’ll want to watch again and again. It seeps in and never let’s go and is thoroughly involving from start to finish.  The whole affair can be summed up in three words – watch it now. Highly recommended.

Watch for free by clicking here RINGU or click on W4FREE where you can watch THE HALLOWEEN HORRORS COLLECTION for free and much much more.