James Wan Recommends This Free-to-Stream Chiller: “It Reintroduced Me to My Love for Asian Horror Stories”
Influential filmmaker James Wan has launched a series of successful franchises that broke box office records. Considering the bulk of his cinematic output has been in the horror genre, it’s no surprise that the prolific creator digs genre cinema.
In fact, Wan sat down with THR a while back and dished on his favorite horror films. On that list is a celebrated classic that inspired a franchise of its own (and a U.S. remake, which spawned a stateside franchise). I’m speaking, of course, of Hideo Nakata’s Ringu.
Of the chilling ‘90s horror picture, Wan said, “This movie [the Japanese original that inspired Hollywood’s The Ring films] reintroduced me to my love for the Asian horror stories that I grew up with.”
Ringu has a loyal fanbase and has also garnered favorable reactions from moviegoers. The film sits at an impressive 98% ‘fresh’ rating on aggregate review site Rotten Tomatoes and boasts an IMDb user rating of 7.2.
In Ringu:
When her niece is found dead along with three friends after viewing a supposedly cursed videotape, reporter Reiko Asakawa (Nanako Matsushima) sets out to investigate. Along with her ex-husband, Ryuji (Hiroyuki Sanada), Reiko finds the tape, watches it, and promptly receives a phone call informing her that she’ll die in a week. Determined to get to the bottom of the curse, Reiko and Ryuji discover the video’s origin and attempt to solve an old murder that could break the spell.
Stay tuned to the site for more recommendations from the masters as we discover them. And be sure to follow @DreadCentral on Twitter to stay up to date with all the latest in the genre space.
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