Don't Answer the Phone!

Director: Hideo Nakata

Starring: Nanaka Matsushima, Hiroyuki Sanada

The hype surrounding Hideo Nakata's cult phenomenon The Ring promises a film scarier than The Blair Witch Project. It's a bold claim. Then again, Ring has left audiences from Asia to Western Europe afraid to pick up the phone.

Their fear is not unwarranted. Viewing Ring (aka Ringu) is like slowly ascending to the peak of an amusement park's tallest roller coaster. It's not so much the descent that's terrifying as it is the apprehension of that final drop. Ring succeeds on a similar level. From the film's opening credits to its harrowing conclusion, Nakata's spine-tingling use of sound and imagery assaults the viewer both physically and psychologically. Yet, unlike the majority of contemporary horror flicks, Ring doesn't rely on gore or violence to unnerve its audience. (The film has very little of either.) Instead, Ring depends almost purely on atmosphere and mood to overwhelm its viewers and convince them that something truly frightening looms just around the corner. (And in this case, something does!) For moviegoers who enjoy their terror served while clinging to the edge of their seat, buckle up and get ready for the ride.

The film's premise unfolds like an urban myth, creatively blending reality and the supernatural. Several Japanese teenagers gather round to watch an underground videocassette. According to legend, the tape is cursed and all who view it will perish in seven days. Recorded onto the tape are a series of haunting images, the most disturbing of which is that of a woman pointing to the camera and foretelling the teens' impending deaths. As the tape concludes, the phone rings. The voice on the other end repeats the woman's grim prophecy. One week later, her deadly prediction comes true.

The video eventually lands in the hands of television journalist Reiko Asakawa. Though Reiko initially dismisses the story of the infamous cassette as nothing more than adolescent folklore, her attitude abruptly changes after her niece suddenly becomes the tape's latest victim. Like any good reporter, Reiko elects to view the ominous video for herself. Moments later, she too receives the ominous phone call. To make matters worse, she soon discovers that her adolescent son Yoichi has also watched the lethal video. Desperate to save Yoichi as well as herself, Reiko sets out to unlock the secrets of the video and the woman on it. But is their anything she can do to lift the curse?

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