Rent Ring (1998)

Menacing long after viewing - Ring review by CP Customer

I can still recall the first time I watched Ringu, albeit on video that added to the experience. To this day it still remains a haunting film, one guaranteed to send shivers down your spine when you review those key scenes in your memory. And yet its so much more than just a horror film; an insight into Japan and a detective story to boot. The characters may try to resist temptation, dismissing such an urban myth before setting the wheels in motion. For J-Horror this was the real shot in the arm that sparked off the genre and brought foreign interest. A nice extra is the full Ringu video tape that comes with warnings. Luckily enough the phone won't ring for you, or will it?

Bad Technology. - Ring review by Steve

This unorthodox ghost story is the peak of a wave of supernatural films that came out of Japan around the millennium. It is obviously influenced by contemporary Hollywood but also has some of the woozy, narcotic ambience of the silent melodramas of the 1920... and boasts arguably the greatest scare scene in a hundred years of cinema.

It rejuvenated horror with its original premise and new rules. These are taken from Koji Suzuki's novel: schoolkids pass around a video which will- somehow- kill you a week after viewing... and you will die of fear. With that setup, the shock climax had better be scary, and it doesn't disappoint. Then Hideo Nakata gives it a definitive J-horror look. 

So the long black hair! And the creepy b&w videotape itself, with its arcane runes. Like the best fright films, it reflects on social anxieties. It intuitively captures tensions in the culture, like reservations about technology, or the folkloric conspiracies of urban myths. But especially, with the chilling subversion of gerontocratic Japanese values... 

As in most US horror, there is a focus on teenage interaction. And it's female led, with Nanako Matsushima as the plucky reporter/scream queen. But the breakout star is Hiroyuki Sanada as her spooky ex-husband- surely the Donald Pleasence of J-horror. While not flawless, it's the most innovative genre film of its decade. Best watched on VHS.