In a Nutshell. Mini reviews of movies old and new. No fuss. No spoilers. And often no sleep.

Saturday 17 September 2011

The Ring Virus (1999)

To date, one of four filmed versions of Kôji Suzuki's Ringu novel. Virus is South Korea's attempt to capture the horrors. Like in Nakata's film the protagonist is changed to a female, but otherwise it more closely follows the plot of the novel. It even reinstates some of the more interesting elements that were absent in the second Japanese version.
It’s not as good as Ringu (1998), but I prefer it over the American remake, The Ring (2002). Don't be expecting the piss-your-pants scares of Ringu, either. It's more of a drama than a horror. Think of it as a companion piece to the others and you may enjoy it more.

3 medical mysteries out of 5

2 comments:

budarc said...

Damn, you had yourself a marathon, didn't you?

I had no idea there was a third version of this movie. Putting it on my list to check out.

Dr Faustus said...

I watched them over the past week, not all at once. There is a second number 2 as well (heh, I said number two) called 'Spiral' but I don't have it.
The way it worked was 'Ringu' and 'Spiral' were filmed simultaneously by 2 different directors. Ringu was much more successful so they hired the director of it to make Ringu 2. The 'Spiral' one is the second book filmed. I'd love to see it, I've read the book.