2. Codes and Conventions of Horror Within
the Film
Personally I feel that Ringu is a very good example of a horror film. Although it may not
always include some of the typical conventions of a horror film, such as gore, it still
creates the same tension and fear of a successful horror. The way in which it does this
is through its narrative of urban myths, danger, deaths and mysteries. However it is the
powerful false ending that holds most terror, when Ryuji is killed by Sadako. It’s not
solely the unnerving idea of something so horrific and gruesome as Sadako coming
towards you and out of your television into your own home, your ‘safe zone’. But is the
contributing features to her general appearance which are typical characteristics of
horror for example, the long dirty white gown, pale skin, long dark hair (covering the
face and eyes of the characters) and the missing finger nails (specific to the film). It is
clear that these are typically terrifying features of
the genre because we see them featured
elsewhere, like in ‘The Grudge’ for instance where
the pale girls face is covered by long dark hair.
‘The Ring’
‘The Grudge’
3. The Horror of Technology
Ringu successfully uses the idea of modern technology to create the horror
in the film. Hideo Nakata uses devices like phones, televisions and home
video devices. Before Ringu existed there were earlier films that explored the
role of technology in horror. For example, ‘The Demon Seed’
(1977), ‘Poltergeist’ (1982) and ‘Maximum Overdrive’ (1986). This suggests
that the fear of horror has existed since the role of technology in society has
become a greater importance and evidently, that in Japan technology is in
very high use and is a continuously growing industry everywhere. It was not
until the early 80’s that VCRs were available for common household use, for
this reason it seems to me that Nakata tried to create the fear based on the
lack of knowledge about the new technology being developed at the
time, and yet how willingly people would accept these things into their
homes without being fully aware about the technology. I feel that Nakata is
trying to display how even in the 90’s our increasing dependency on
technology is becoming more destructive.
