Ringu 0 (2000) Review

Ringu O was directed by Norio Tsuruta (who also directed Dream Cruise and Premonition) and stars Kumiko Asou (from Kaidan, Casshern), Yoshiko Tanaka (from Godzilla vs Biollante) and Ryûshi Mizukami (from A Haunted School). It’s the origin story of Sadako, the vengeful spirit who curses death upon anyone who watches her cryptic VHS tape.

The “zero” part of Ringu 0 is supposed to mean “birthday”, or the birth of Sadako, which is why it wasn’t named Ringu 3. This prequel to Ringu is all about who Sadako was back when she was alive and what drove her to become the vengeful spirit we all know and fear. This movie goes out of its way to humanize Sadako in a sympathetic way so we know that before she was climbing out of TV’s scaring people to death, she was just a young girl scared herself.

Ringu 0 is not a scary movie, only a couple of scenes (and maybe the concept) even qualify it to fall under the horror genre. It’s a slow burn drama start to finish. It’s similar to the new Suspiria and Black Swan since the entire movie takes place in a competitive acting studio. It’s also similar to Stephen King’s Carrie, in that Sadako is a passive loner who is bullied for being different, and later reveals having psychic powers that she uses to exact revenge on her bullies.

The vast majority of this movie isn’t anything supernatural like the other two Ringu’s that came before it, it’s just a sad story about a girl who gets picked on and who finally freaks out when she’s had enough.

The very last scene when she gets dumped in the well is pretty cool, but that’s about it.