Ring and Ring 2 were fantastic horror films that I to this day love and terrify me. Ring 0..Ring 0 tells the story back in the 50's where Sadako is represented as two sides;a good side and a bad side. The good side is in a theater group and soon enough the staff start to die mysteriously and it all leads up to Sadako,the evil side is a little girl who is not really in it that much. Ring 0 sounded like it was going to be the best film in years I mean two Sadako's ehhhh WOW! sadly,i was wrong..Ring 0 was a very boring movie. I think that this should have stood out as a movie on its own like maybe a different film but same idea. I think the problem was the director,Hideo Nakata did not sadly return to make this film. The ending scene was kind off what kept it from being a pile of crap but ehh..ya. Ring 0 ruins the Ring franchise sadly what used to be the scariest horror franchise is nothing now..

A reporter by the name of Miyaji Akiko has heard suspicious things about a young girl named Sadako, and is attempting to gather information on her past from a grade school she went to. Meanwhile, Sadako joins an acting troupe but is tormented by her own psychic abilities and the hatred of the other troupe members. Miyaji soon discovers the disturbing truth that the entire troupe has become "cursed" due to Sadako's presence, and that there is a "second", more evil, Sadako at work. After the troupe gang up on Sadako and mercilessly beat her, they learn of the "second" Sadako and it's here they realise that their own lives are now in danger as the evil side of Sadako gradually takes over.The events in Ringu 0 actually take place 30 years prior to what happened in Ringu so you get more of an insight into the character of Sadako and how the legend is born. Here, she's not the evil entity that is shown in Ringu...she's just a seemingly lost, lonely child trying to fit in and you actually feel sorry for her.It's a nice premise, but unfortunately Ringu 0 isn't that much better than the exceedingly dreary Ringu 2 and apart from a couple of decent scares, it's just as boring and as slow paced. It's a pity because I was looking forward to watching this film as I knew it was a prequel to the first movie, and was intrigued to see how Sadako started off and what happened to her, but I was bitterly disappointed with the outcome.The film doesn't really aim to scare the audience like Ringu and Ringu 2 done (well, like what Ringu done anyway) and seems to concentrate more on the story of Sadako herself, which is fine, if it was done well. It wasn't, however, and is just one big overall disappointment.This is definitely not up to the standards of the first film and to be honest I'd only really recommend watching it to see how the series is started. Other than that, I'd avoid it....unless you can't sleep.

If you think this film is going to answer all the questions about how Sadako acquired supernatural viral video production powers, it won't. It just adds more questions. It's not like a Marvel universe "origin story"! But suppose you never saw "Ringu" and came to this cold and just flowed with it, I think you would be impressed by the spine-tingliness of it all. At any moment something creepy and unexpected may happen, and generally speaking these are not clichés like cats jumping out at you or a monster suddenly attacking. They may just be things like, say, a flower falling off its stem for no reason.Throughout, the film conveys the idea that no matter how weird and dangerous you think things are, you really still have no idea. A train is coming at you, but then you realize that there aren't any tracks and it can go where it wants, and even stop acting like a train.Ayn Rand (I'm not a disciple btw) wrote something to the effect that the distinguishing feature of horror films (and what, in her opinion, made them evil and repellent) is that they convey the picture of a universe that is hostile and incomprehensible, not subject to prediction or manipulation by human intelligence. I don't think the universe really is that way, but I don't think it's evil to produce a fantasy film that shows you that kind of version of the universe for an hour and a half - as this movie effectively does.That's the really scary thing in my view. It's bad enough to have really dangerous entities going around, but it mitigates the badness if you can learn about them and then avoid them or defeat them. If Dracula is in the neighborhood, stock up on mirrors and crucifixes and summon Van Helsing! But if Sadako is in the neighborhood, you are in deep trouble. Knowing about her may have been your fatal mistake, or misfortune.

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?