The Ring

Journalist Rachel Keller investigates a strange videotape that may be behind the untimely deaths of four teenagers. There is an urban legend about this tape: the viewer will die seven days after watching it. Rachel tracks down the video... and watches it. Now she has just seven days to unravel the mystery of the Ring in order to save herself and her son.

Gore Verbinski's American remake landed as a genuinely atmospheric horror film, with Naomi Watts and the film's restraint from gore earning broad credit — but critics split sharply on whether the script held up under scrutiny. The lack of character depth and a plot that many felt collapsed on inspection kept it from unanimous praise, even as audiences largely embraced it as an effective scare machine.