The Ring

The Ring is a remake. The original — Ringu, directed by Hideo Nakata in 1998 — is the film that launched J-Horror as a global phenomenon. Japanese horror of the 1990s and 2000s found its specific uncanny in technology as haunted object, long-haired female ghosts, the domestic space as site of supernatural terror. Ringu, Ju-On, Audition — these are the real films. Gore Verbinski's version is competent. Nakata's is genuinely disturbing in ways that linger.