Decades on, it remains one of the great works of horror cinema.

| Original Score: 10/10 | Aug 25, 2024

On occasion, a film comes along which makes an almost immediate, indelible mark. As soon as it appears, it disrupts what came before it; it can be difficult to even remember a time before it, so quickly do its characters and archetypes take hold.

| Original Score: A | Apr 14, 2023

Its strength is in its simplicity and its cultural purity.

| Sep 16, 2022

Almost nothing terrible is shown: the real horror lies in the viewer's anticipation.

| Sep 16, 2022

A most artfully creepy piece of work.

| Sep 16, 2022

Absolutely some moments of maximum creep here.

| Original Score: B | Sep 2, 2022

A powerful exercise in atmosphere, still disarming after over a decade...

| Original Score: 5/5 | Sep 24, 2020

Nakata's patient, slithering movie has many imitators, but no equals.

| Jan 29, 2019

Ring put the willies up me, big time.

| Oct 14, 2014

If you don't mind, I'm off to the corner of my office to curl into a fetal position and rock slowly.

| Original Score: B+ | Oct 14, 2014

Ringu has a minimalist intensity that can stop the heart with a simple flash-cut or a well-timed fillip in the musical score.

Full Review | Oct 10, 2012

As good as The Ring is, it can't top the original for sheer, shivering terror.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Oct 10, 2012

A sure, stealthy shocker which certainly primes you for the sequel.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 10, 2012

Director Hideo Nakata manages to strike a genuinely alarming balance between the cultural depths of Japanese folklore and the surface sheen of latter-day teen culture.

| Jun 18, 2012

While the story is engrossing, and the acting top-notch, Hideo Nakata's direction is the primary reason to watch.

| May 26, 2011

David Cronenberg could perhaps compete with Nakata but unfortunately only lesser mortals have attempted to replicate the feeling that Reiko has plunged into something with which even her psychic powers can't compete.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 31, 2008

Ring has indescribably disturbing moments that frightened me out of my wits. But like many of the Japanese horrors that followed, it sometimes has an elliptic and confusing storytelling style that can make plot-progression muddy.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 31, 2008

The original retains its power to chill, although in the age of the DVD and the download, the idea of a haunted video cassette seems positively archaic.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 30, 2008

The finale, too, still feels as twisted, bizarre and down-right nightmarish as it did all those years ago.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Oct 30, 2008

Classically shot, with effective use of stereo sound effects, the movie is almost entirely free of visual horror and the usual Eastern ghost cliches, managing to suspend auds' disbelief in the hokey story through pure atmosphere.

| Oct 7, 2008