The Ring
DreamWorks Distribution | Release Date: October 18, 2002 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
57
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 36 Critic Reviews
Positive:
19
Mixed:
13
Negative:
4
Watch Now
Stream On
Buy on
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
San Francisco ChronicleC.W. Nevius
So good it's scary. Read full review
90
Washington PostStephen Hunter
The creepiest, clammiest, twitchiest squealfest in months. It offers, among its many pleasures, the happiness of safe fear. Read full review
80
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
As a marriage of big-budget filmmaking and old-fashioned scare tactics, it easily ranks alongside last year's "The Others." Read full review
80
TimeRichard Schickel
An edgy, watchable film, but one that makes you feel more squeamish than screamish. Read full review
80
Rolling StonePeter Travers
The pickings are slim for scares this Halloween season (Ghost Ship, Below), so The Ring wins first prize by default. Read full review
80
Film ThreatJim Agnew
Dark, disturbing and original throughout. You know that you’re going to see something a little different than your usual studio crap. Read full review
80
Dallas ObserverGregory Weinkauf
At last Dreamworks has given us the stuff of nightmare. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
The less said about The Ring, the better for you, the sooner-to-be-freaked-out. Read full review
75
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
The Ring, is going to be this year's version of the "Blair Witch" and "Sixth Sense" phenomenon. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
The best thing about the movie, which is a very elegantly crafted piece of gothic snuff hokum, is the way it teases and intrigues us with the revelation of what's on that tape. Read full review
75
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
If your senses haven't been dulled by slasher films and gorefests, if you're a connoisseur of psychological horror, this is your ticket. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneRobert K. Elder
Ends up a few frames short of the perfect horror film, but very few. Read full review
70
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
A frighteningly good horror movie with enough solid scares to freeze the blood of ardent fans and newcomers alike. Read full review
70
NewsweekDavid Ansen
This visually stunning movie serves up generous dollops of designer creepiness.
70
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
A deviously engineered parasite that'll crawl under your skin and live in your nervous system for a while if you give it half a chance. Read full review
63
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Too many threads are left dangling and the movie ultimately proves too implausible to put alongside those horror classics. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
It's a workmanlike, passably engrossing horror flick that copies well from the Japanese original. When it's good, it's not original, and when it's original, it's not so good. Read full review
63
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
It's an understatement to say that The Ring is not your ordinary horror film. And never forget to rewind. Read full review
63
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
What we have here is a suburban-legend movie stripped of rough edges and cut off from any depth that might have made it insidiously haunting. Read full review
60
SlateDavid Edelstein
The movie is meant to get into you like a virus, and it does. Read full review
60
L.A. WeeklyDavid Chute
In the final reel, the tension dissipates with a flabby hiss, as the film devolves into a banal, conventional ghost story. Read full review
58
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
Never quite catches fire. They take a crackerjack premise and a comely, committed leading lady and turn in a merely OK film.
50
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
Certainly acceptable. But no one seeing it is going to feel as spooked as executive producer Roy Lee. To make an audience feel that intensely, you need a different kind of director and a different kind of film. Read full review
50
VarietyTodd McCarthy
Comes across in muted fashion, with uninvolving characters and lack of genuine excitement or fright creating a second-rate, second-hand feel. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
The unworthy new Hollywood remake of Japan's horror phenomenon, ''Ring,'' has packed on a definite article and a whole lot of hooey. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
A creepy, oozy, dopey remake of the stylish 1998 Japanese thriller, "Ringu." Read full review
50
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Has its creepy moments, but also its cliches. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Takes things too far by leaving about 75% of its questions unanswered. This isn't an artistic choice; it's screenwriting sloppiness, and it results in a profoundly dissatisfying experience. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
The kind of dread dark horror film where you better hope nobody in the audience snickers, because the film teeters right on the edge of the ridiculous. Read full review
50
New York PostLou Lumenick
A stylish but distressingly generic and not particularly scary American remake of a phenomenally popular Japanese supernatural thriller that spawned two sequels and a TV miniseries. Read full review
40
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
While impressively made, this impassive and cold feature fails, in a spectacular fashion, to deliver the thrills. Read full review
40
Film ThreatRick Kisonak
Watts is extra-watchable and, as I say, the filmmaker does achieve a style and tone the script never comes close to living up to. Otherwise, Verbinski's adaptation of the 1998 Japanese hit "Ringu" misses the mark almost completely. Read full review
38
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
I hated it, but I grant that it does tap into a vein of technological horror - the fear of the VCR! - that will have young videophiles chatting it up for weeks Read full review
30
Village VoiceMichael Atkinson
Requiring an enormous amount of suspended disbelief, the original Rings may be a culture-specific phenom; despite strenuous efforts to Americanize Nakata's field of bad dreams, the preview audience did a lot of cackling. Read full review
30
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
Won't kill you, but it could bore you half to death.
30
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
It's an utter waste of Watts; there's not a trace here of the talent on display in Mulholland Drive, perhaps because the script doesn't bother to give her a character. Read full review
More From This Movie

57 Critic Reviews

4.5 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 81 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
2 77 Project Hail Mary
3 75 Send Help
4 73 Hoppers
5 72 The Sheep Detectives
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL