The Ring (2002)

“Gore Verbinski creates an air of dread that begins with the first scene and never lets up, subtly incorporating elements from the current wave of Japanese horror films along the way.” — Keith Phipps, The A.V. Club

SYNOPSIS

Arriving amid the first wave of Hollywood’s fascination with Japanese horror, Gore Verbinski’s chilling remake of Hideo Nakata’s Ringu became a phenomenon in its own right and helped usher J-horror into the American mainstream. Naomi Watts stars as Seattle journalist Rachel Keller, whose investigation into the mysterious deaths of four teenagers leads to an urban legend surrounding a cursed videotape: anyone who watches it receives a phone call announcing that they have only seven days to live. Verbinski envelops the Pacific Northwest in a sickly, rain-soaked atmosphere while allowing the uncanny imagery of the tape itself to infect the movie around it, blurring distinctions between recorded images, memory, and reality. Eschewing the winking self-awareness that dominated much of late-’90s American horror, The Ring restored an eerie sense of mystery and supernatural dread to the studio horror movie…and made an entire generation afraid to answer the telephone.