JUNKFILM

#25 is more of a plead for originals over the American remakes.

Ring - 1998 / Pulse (Kairo) - 2001

These are two films that freaked me right the fuck out of my shoes when I first watched them. I remember watching Ring (and just for clarification it is spelled Ring, not Ringu (the only reason they changed the phonetic pronunciation is to keep idiots from renting the original as opposed to the remake)) in the middle of the day on a VHS my friend Jeff made for me waaaaay before it was remade into the movie everyone has seen. Middle of the day. Not that scary of a time to be freaked out. When the little girl crawled out of the well and the camera never cut away from her, I felt myself pushing back in my couch and not wanting to see what came next. I was poopy pants scared.

When the movie was remade, I’ll give it that it makes more sense in the American, but there is little to be scared about. Specially in the crawling out of the TV part. The American cuts too much during this scene and it makes it far less scary and more aggravating to watch.

The other movie, Pulse, is a slow paced ghost story that creeps your soul out. There is one scene that is just scary as all hell when a ghost SLOOOOOOOWLY walks toward the camera and trips a little and it makes it looks so unnatural and bizarre you can’t help but push yourself farther away. The American remake is much faster in story and scary scenes ultimately destroying the entire point of the building fear.

Fun Facts:
There are two sequels to the Ring shot in Japan: Rasen (also from 1998, aka Spiral) and Ring 2 (from 1999, and which was not based on Suzuki’s works), as well as a prequel, Ring 0: Birthday (2000). There was also a Korean remake (called Ring in Korea and The Ring Virus abroad). A video game, known as The Ring: Terror’s Realm in the U.S., was also released in 2000 for the Dreamcast. Plus a one-season TV show that in my opinion was…veeerry bad.

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