I actually saw this movie one week ago today. I had heard so much about it and had read all of the reviews on this page (Including spoilers unfortunately) and was really exited about the film. Upon viewing it, I was indeed impressed, but was a little disappointed. Maybe because I had read spoilers that weren't marked in the reviews, maybe because I had hyped myself up for the movie. It wasn't Blair Witch. This is due to the fact that the plot sunk in and out of highs and lows. Blair Witch had a constant fear that I associated with it. But when it was over, I tried to go to sleep, and couldn't. For the last 7 days I haven't been able to sleep. I keep hearing little noises in the house, and I keep thinking of this movie's frightening ghost and the fact that I have a TV in almost every room. She didn't really instill fear into me until after the movie. But if even in daylight, you are afraid to go into a room that has a silent Television set... Well, now that its day seven, and I'll have seen the movie 7 days exactly at around 9pm, Maybe I'll be able to sleep tomorrow.

I think the beauty of this movie isn't in your first impression, but in the mental impression it leaves on your subconscious. The fact that, if you believe, even just a little, in the supernatural, this could very well be a true story...

Such was the cult-like swelling of appreciation around this picture, that I was surprised to discover that in terms of effect and ambition it was at best a variant of 'The X-Files'. A particularly good, intelligent, eerie X-File, maybe, with an excellent sense of narrative, but an X-File nonetheless. In the West at any rate, it does not have the same impact as the movie it's been most compared to, 'The Blair Witch Project' - 'Ring''s exquisite formalism (in direction, plotting and acting) is in contrast with the compelling contrived naturalism of the American film, its roots in America's past, folk legends etc. The disparity between the Michael Haneke-like clarity of the image, and the various traces that can be made out - a reflection on a window, the glow of a lamp - is where the real chill is.

It is a cliche that the horror movie puts on the surface those things a society would rather not acknowledge - 'Ring' takes this literally, the source of its horrors being a young woman buried alive in a well. The repressed traumas that Japan is hiding, then, on the basis of this film, is the old, conservative past. It is surely significant that the victims are all 'morally suspect' - the teenage friends who go out of town for presumed sexual licence; the daughter of a mother who isn't in the home. The heroine is an independent single mother who leaves her son at home for alarmingly long patches. The new Western liberalism taints everyone.

The new capitalist Japan is not even as we might imagine it from received opinion - there are few teeming streets, noisy traffic jams, bright neon signs, consumer overload, towering skyscrapers. This is very much a quiet, minimalist Japan, of large empty rooms filled with dread, of quiet empty streets. All everyday sound is magnified to seem hyperreal, threatening. All absences betray the expectation of a malevolent presence.

Old Japan is very much alive in the elaborate, formal religious rituals, but in this film they are funeral rites, linking the traditional to death, and it is this suppressed tradition that returns from the dead. After all Sadako is killed by an adulterer. It is also the revenge of forgotten provinces on Tokyo, the regional infecting the metropolitan, nature fighting back artifice, history versus post-modernism. Women, though, are always witches. Plus ca change.

Of course, the curse is disseminated by modernity's most sophisticated and pervasive mode of communication, TV, itself a museum of the dead, especially late at night, when Sadako strikes, along with all the old movies and forgotten stars.

If 'Ring' itself seems rather smallscreen, the little curse-movie is a masterpiece - part-Bunuel, part-Dreyer, with its hair-brushing woman, characters teeming like an insect hive, crawling men, hooded votaries, incredibly symbolically-loaded well, it is easily the best film I've seen all year. This makes the potentially risible denouement, as Sadako emerges from the TV, so poignant, as she jerks like old scratchy film.

Last night, I had a chance to see a beautiful sub-titled 35mm print of "Ring" at the Egyptian theatre in Hollywood, and I was in awe. As a long time fan of horror films, I've long since gotten past the point of being particularly scared for the most part, but this movie had me paralyzed and breathless from the first shot through its entire 98 minute run time. I got home and had to sleep with the lights on. This morning, in class, I couldn't concentrate because I could not get "Ring's" haunting images and deeply disturbing ideas out of my mind. It will probably be a long time before I even work up the courage to watch "Ring" a second time, but when I do, I know I'll love it just as much as I did the first time.

"Ring" is full of twists that catch you off guard at every turn (unless you've read some of the spoiler-filled reviews people have posted here), and the twist ending (which fortunately was not revealed by any reviewers here) puts "The Sixth Sense" to shame. I am still running through the movie in my mind, examining how every little element pays off in some very unexpected ways.

Do not watch "Ring" alone. But if you like to be scared, then DO watch it. You won't be disappointed.

How can people call this film overrated? I only found out about this movie by chance and I'm glad I did. This film lays down the suspense factor right from the very beginning and

(POSSIBLE SPOILER) unleashes all of its fury in its final scenes. (END SPOILER)

All of the characters in this film are excellent and a great atmosphere is created mostly due to the great soundtrack and a few disturbing images. I recommend you to watch this with at least one other person and not in the dark unless you're really brave :0 Be prepared for many sleepless nights and having an urge to look over your back every minute. I now can't wait to see RING 2 and RING 0.

This film shows the rest of the world how to make a great horror movie. After you watch this film, you'll most probably think that the proposed Dreamworks American version is a bad idea.

I actually saw this a few months back when channel 4 showed it in their Extreme cinema strand. I only write now after hearing that there will be a (god help us) American remake, and it reminded me how deeply affected I was by this film.

I sat down and watched this with my dad. I also watched the Shining with my dad, and halfway through had to cross the room to sit on the same sofa as him, too scared to sit on my own. With this film I didn't cross the room. I couldn't move. THAT is how scary this film is.

It works by stealth, creating a highly uneasy atmosphere, you're never sure what's going to happen next. Heck, you're not sure you want to know what happens next! The story is interesting and drags you in, especially if you like horror with a plot (yes, that's 'plot'...remember what that is?). And the twist ending is exactly that - I thought the film had finished, and then with dread realised that nope, there was the worst yet to come.

Before the film there was a guy explaining a bit about the history of the film, a bit of a commentary. I'd not been impressed with this guy's commentaries on previous films, so I took his comments about the climax of Ring with a pinch of salt. Then to my shock, I discovered he was right - it really was one of the scariest things I'd ever seen. And it happens so painfully slowly...just seeing a still of that freaky long haired girl is enough to scare me now. Where she actually climbs OUT of the TV - I nearly had a heart attack. The video images themselves are enough to give me nightmares. And I'm sure they would have done, if I'd actually managed to sleep that night.

This is a well made, well acted, completely terrifying example of modern horror, and is well worth seeing, even at the sacrifice of one (or more) good night's sleep.

Wow, I have to watch this one again. My brain's recuperating.

Ringu has a strange and eerie feel to it. Add this with Kanji Kawai's chilling soundtrack which at one point sounds like violins bleeding. You find yourself dreading to look at the screen, but anticipation keeps you asking for more. Thank that to Hideo Nakata's great use of pacing (some action is slowed down at times adding a psychedelic feel) and awesome cinematography work. Certain angles give an almost dreamlike state and adds a dreary, dark factor to the surroundings.

Acting is great in this one. Emotions seem genuine and the paranoia and fear of the characters makes scenes intense to watch at times. Mai is so eager to find the truth that she blindly fails to see the imminent danger. Or at least believe it. Ryuji finds it hard to believe as well; an attitude which changes drastically as the story progresses. Even Yoichi had a creepy heir about himself especially when he mentions he's speaking with Tomoko. Sound effects such as voices slowed down, ringing, and static are simple, but very effective. It's easy to see how this film set the standard in the Japanese horror genre.

Overall, this is one extreme psycho-thriller from Japan.

Unfortunately I can't say too much about this film without giving too much away. The plot centres around an urban myth of a strange video tape which, when watched, issues the viewer with a one week death sentence. This is no urban myth, and soon the journey to discover the secrets of the tape is underway, in only seven days.

I loved this film, very well written and directed, with some excellent performances guaranteed to freak you out. Definitely not an in-your-face shlock slasher, it shows the recent spate of so-called intelligent creepy Hollywood films who's the daddy.

It requires some intelligent thinking from the audience, instead of characters blatantly pointing out facts to the screen, the conversations are at a very normal level, with the audience expected to listen and understand rather than be force fed by profit orientated writers.

With brilliant imagery, with moment reminding me of both Videodrome and Prince of Darkness, you're eyes will be working overtime as well as your brain.

This goes in my top ten horror. Now I must see the sequel and prequel!

It is truly an excellent movie and shows why foreign cinema beats the pants of Hollywood.

I probably shouldn't even bother posting a review! About the aspects of the film itself, there's nothing more to say. On the other hand, I was compelled to add my own personal reaction to this movie and the reason I found it so impressive. I was convinced that no horror movie could ever scare me. I had taken the mind set that "It's just a movie! What's to be scared of?" I've gotta tell you that "Ring" came along and blew me away. I was scared senseless. Other movies/shows had succeeded in creeping me out a bit: "The Shining", "House on Haunted Hill"(the 1999 version. Fun at some places but downright unnerving at others!), and "Twin Peaks" to name almost all of 'em. And recently, "The Mothman Prophecies" was a welcome addition to the list. Oh, and Stephen King's "Rose Red" too! I even let my imagination loose and allowed myself to be bothered by the infamous "Blair Witch". I've also enjoyed many an ominous Lovecraft story. The point is that as much as these things disturbed me to an extent, none of them compare to "Ring". Any movie that has the ability to give me an unbearable cramp in my leg from remaining tense and breathless for an hour and a half and bestow upon me a fear of the dark (and of my television of course) has to be doing something right! Even now, months after my first viewing, I don't think I have the courage to watch it by myself in the dark. "Ring" did what I had thought no movie could do... it terrified me. I never knew I could have such a psychological and emotional reaction from a mere movie. I was proven wrong (BOY was I proven wrong) and it has renewed my faith in the horror genre. A horror movie that actually terrifies? Wow, what a concept! One more thing.... I defy you to find a more terrifying presence than Sadako!

A brilliant piece of japanese film-making, shows just how to make a modern supernatural thriller with the minimum of effort, gore-wise, using effective camera angles and superb music score, along with incredibly eerie sound editing, makes this one of the best supernatural thrillers ever to be filmed.

The film has a very dark and sinister feel to it, and some of the most unsettling sequences is the video itself which is being handed from person to person in the movie (you can find this sequence in whole on the DVD edition of Ring 2). The flashback sequences have been wonderfully post-produced, black&white with suitable amount of grain making it very eerie. One of the most complementary things about this film is the notion of violence, instead of making it graphical, it rather suggests it instead, forcing the viewer to go to the dark corners of his imagination - thus making the experience of the film even more intense.

If you're not a serious film-buff the fact that it's japanese might set you off in the start, which is a pity, because this is film-making Hollywood can never, or hardly, achieve. But if you appreciate international film-making this is a must-see, especially if you're into japanese films.