Even though never a fan of the original to begin with, I once was stupid enough to buy a box set containing all four "Ringu"-films and now I'm stuck with it! So, like it or not, but here's another negative review on the immensely overrated "Ringu"-series, more particularly about the totally redundant and soporific "Birthday". Ringu 0, is it? Well, that's exactly the rating it can get: zero out of ten. This is a prequel, set approximately 30 years before the murderous videotape events of "Ringu" and revolving entirely on the character of Sadako when she was in her late teens. I have absolutely no idea why, though, because she's an uninteresting and dull person. Several years after her mother's suicide turned Sadako into an emotional wreck, she suddenly decides to join a theater club and become an actress. This all goes well for a while as she seems talented and she even snares herself a boyfriend. It takes approximately ten minutes before boredom similar to the previous two films kicks in and even worse this installment also suffers from horrible clichés. Sadako turns out the Japanese equivalent of Carrie and her spiritual forces inflict light-bulb implosions and stage machinery falling down by itself. The most embarrassing cliché is kept until the end, when the plot suddenly suggests the existence of an evil-twin sister nobody knows about. Oh please! Personally, I don't think it's such a great idea to fool your audiences into believing Sadako's spirit represents pure evil during two whole films, only to portray her as a poor and emotionally fragile girl afterwards. Isn't that like ruining the franchise's whole power? There's no suspense or atmosphere to detect anywhere, acting & directing are mediocre and the few action sequences are way too soft. Forget about "Ringu" and let's watch some REAL horror instead, shall we?
Review of Ring 0: Birthday
