19 December 2020

Ring 0: Birthday (Japan, 2000)

The prequel to the horror film Ringu, this movie provides the background story of how Sadako later became the vengeful murdering spirit. The story starts with her as a shy, somewhat withdrawn, college student who nonetheless gets involved in a drama club. The director thinks she has talent, but some of the other performers start to get jealous of the attention he gives her. Meanwhile, a reporter investigating Sadako's spiritualist mother thinks there's something very suspicious about the young woman, and arrives on campus to confront Sadako.

While Ring 0 seems to have the biggest chance of failure of the Ring-sequels it's actually one of the more fleshed out ones. I've read it was panned at release and deemed a "mediocre Carrie-ripoff", and while one could certainly see the similarities between the two I enjoyed Birthday for what it was, a prequel with less spooks but an engaging story which slowly evolved into something more sinister. It's based on one of the stories by original Ringu author Koji Suzuki, making it a huge piece of the backstory puzzle, it looks great with slow camera movements mixed with muted colors capturing an almost nostalgic 90's look. 

More story-based than you'd hope out of a Ring film, but still ambitious and a noticeable competent director behind the camera. Maybe it's a guilty pleasure, but still, I liked the film and doesn't see the reason to bash it for not having Sadako constantly coming through the TV-screen.


Genre: Horror/Thriller

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