Ring
Directed by Hideo Nakata
- horror
- thriller
The story
A mysterious video has been linked to a number of deaths, and when an inquisitive journalist finds the tape and views it herself, she sets in motion a chain of events that puts her own life in danger.
What it’s like
Desaturated greens and greys, flat overcast daylight, and fluorescent-lit offices and apartments that feel bleached of warmth. Hideo Nakata's Ring builds dread through patient, static framing: long held shots of ordinary rooms, doorways and corridors where something is about to appear, and a cold, watery palette that suits the island and seaside settings. Sound does much of the work, with sparse, eerie strings and long stretches of near silence broken by telephone rings and the hiss of tape static, so that a jolt lands hard after quiet. The tone is cool, unsettling and procedural at first, a journalist's investigation slowly tightening into personal panic, and its arc follows a woman racing against a deadline she can't see. Intensity is moderate: the horror is atmospheric and psychological, with a few sudden, startling images and one unsettling sequence of a dead body, but little gore and no sexual content. It suits a late-night watch alone with the lights off, for viewers who want slow-burn supernatural dread with a folklore-tinged, urban-legend chill rather than splatter.
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