In 1998, director Hideo Nakata (Dark Water) unleashed a chilling tale of technological terror on unsuspecting audiences, which redefined the horror genre, launched the J-horror boom in the West and introducing a generation of moviegoers to a creepy, dark-haired girl called Sadako. The film's success spawned a slew of remakes, reimaginations and imitators, but none could quite boast the power of Nakata's original masterpiece, which melded traditional Japanese folklore with contemporary anxieties about the spread of technology.
A group of teenage friends are found dead, their bodies grotesquely contorted, their faces twisted in terror. Reiko (Nanako Matsushima, When Marnie Was There), a journalist and the aunt of one of the victims, sets out to investigate the shocking phenomenon, and in the process uncovers a creepy urban legend about a supposedly cursed videotape, the contents of which causes anyone who views it to die within a week - unless they can persuade someone else to watch it, and, in so doing, pass on the curse...
Arrow is proud to present Ringu, the film that started it all, restored from the original negative in glorious high definition.
Up Next in 90s
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Dead or Alive
Beginning with an explosive, six-minute montage of sex, drugs and violence, and ending with a phallus-headed battle robot taking flight, Takashi Miike's unforgettable Dead or Alive Trilogy features many of the director's most outrageous moments set alongside some of his most dramatically moving s...
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Deadly Manor
1990 • Spain • Directed by José Ramón Larraz
An old, dark house... A maniac on the loose... An orgy of bloodlust!
All the hallmarks of late master of Spanish macabre José Ramón Larraz (Edge of the Axe, Vampyres) are present and correct in 1990's Deadly Manor - the final horror movie from one o...
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Castle Freak
1995 • United States • Directed by Stuart Gordon
John (Jeffrey Combs), Susan (Barbara Crampton) and their daughter come face to face with terror when they travel to Italy to move into a castle they've inherited. They soon discover it is haunted by a relentless blood-thirsty creature. When mutila...