Great Expectations

Watched "Ringu" and "Ringu 2" last night. They were. OK. I expected "Ringu" to fire off all my fright-neurons, but alas, it did not. The only scene that could have been frightening, when Sadako goes after the professor, was unfortunately marred by memories of SMAP's Kusanagi doing a take-off of that very scene about a year ago. I couldn't take it at all seriously (damn SMAP!). But to be fair, I'd had 3 years of build-up and people saying "It's soooooooooo scary" so I guess my expectations were unreasonably high.

"Ringu 2" was a bit surreal (although not bad) but why, WHY do they have to spoil horror movies with cheesy Japanese TV music at crucial moments! People, really.

"Ringu" was probably the first in the new-wave of horror movies with bat-wing haired she-demon antagonists, and since then, other Japanese directors have taken a lot of "Ringu"'s themes and made them better and scarier (in my opinion). "Ju-on 2" shat all over "Ringu" in terms of setting my nerves (of self-confessed steel) on edge and staying with me for a loooooong time after. I'm still a bit nervous about putting our kotatsu blanket over our kotatsu after that one...