A chair-jolting horror remake that transcended expectations is still going strong on its 20th anniversary

It’s certainly rare in horror for a movie that is beyond twenty years old to maintain the same vigor and vibrance that it once held during its initial era. And while notable horror classics like Halloween (1978) and The Exorcist (1973) miraculously achieved this golden accomplishment, it’s an even greater feat for a movie like The Ring (2002) — which effectively served as the American remake of Hideo Nakata’s iconic J-horror feature, Ringu (1998).

One of the trickiest tasks to complete is adhering to Hollywood’s specific diet of Americanized films, and while the process on paper makes it seem that a flick like The Ring wouldn’t perform well, the collaboration between director Gore Verbinski and screenwriter Ehren Kruger was determined to change the narrative. Luckily, Verbinski’s gamble seemingly paid off, and as a result, The Ring garnered a jaw-dropping $249 million at the worldwide box office against a $48 million budget.

For its efforts, the genuinely scary, skin-crawling nature of the movie’s plot and characters was enough to keep fans celebrating the memorable remake over the years — which even includes a recent Reddit thread on the r/horror platform. In the in-depth analysis, user u/azgarz praised the movie’s aesthetically-pleasing blue-green hue, dismal score, breathtaking cinematography, and the overall significance that the feature had on the horror genre as a collective.

Naturally, fellow horror junkies congregated in the comment section — with a variety of remarks that either conclude that The Ring is superior to Ringu or that the movie is solidified as one of the best Japanese horror remakes.

Whether it’s The Ring or Ringu, each story perfectly conveyed the general fear factor that successfully served as a major contribution to not only the world of horror, but the J-horror sub-genre specifically.