The Ring (2002) reviews

The Fuzzy Mushroom take on The Ring

By Fuzzy Mushroom · Updated 11 November 2026 · The Pros 64 · The Punters 75 · Spore Score 66 · How we write our takes

Why The Punters like it more

The Ring is the film that brought Japanese horror to multiplexes in the West, and audiences have been slightly kinder to it than critics. The Punters give it 75, The Pros 64, for a Spore Score of 66. The 11-point gap mostly reflects critics who compared it, unfavourably, with Hideo Nakata's 1998 original, Ringu. Many viewers saw Gore Verbinski's version first and never forgot it.

What it does well

Seattle journalist Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts) investigates the sudden death of her niece and hears about a videotape that kills whoever watches it seven days later. She watches it. The race to find out where the tape came from, with her ex-partner Noah (Martin Henderson) and their son Aidan, leads to an island horse farm and the story of a girl named Samara.

The cursed tape itself is the film's masterstroke: a minute of disconnected, unsettling images that feels genuinely found rather than designed. Verbinski bathes everything in a grey-green Pacific Northwest gloom, and Watts plays it straight, which keeps the premise from tipping into silliness. The final scene with the television remains one of the most effective scares of its decade.

Where people push back

The middle stretch over-explains the mystery. Compared with Ringu, the remake leans on louder effects and a busier score, and some of the logic around the tape does not survive a close look. The horse scene on the ferry divides people.

Who it is for

Viewers who like slow-burn ghost stories with a strong central performance. It is a good gateway to Japanese horror, after which Ringu itself is well worth seeking out.

The Fuzzy Mushroom verdict

Good bet, with a Spore Score of 66. Not a classic in the way its original is, but a well-made remake with one of the great endings in mainstream horror.