Poster © DreamWorks Pictures. Shown at reduced size for review and commentary.
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GenreHorror & Mystery
RatedPG-13
Runtime1 hr 55 mins
ReleasedOctober 18, 2002
StreamingSee Where to Watch
DirectorGore Verbinski
StarringNaomi Watts, Martin Henderson, Brian Cox
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The Ring (2002)
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| The Ring's Details | |
| Genre | Horror & Mystery |
| Rated | PG-13 |
| Released | 10/18/2002 (United States) |
| Streaming | See Where to Watch on this page. |
| Running Time | 1 hr 55 mins |
| Budget | $48M (reported) |
| Box Office | Updated daily from Box Office Mojo. See the numbers below. |
| Based On | Ring by Hiroshi Takahashi, Ring by Koji Suzuki |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| The Ring's Interests | |
| General | VHS tapes, ringing landlines, rainy ferries, rental cabins, static, a very long week. |
| Music | Hans Zimmer, with a string-heavy score that never lets you relax. |
| Movies | Ringu (1998). The Japanese original that started the whole curse. |
| Television | The Twilight Zone. Old-school dread on a TV screen, which feels relevant here. |
| Heroes | Rachel Keller. Treats a cursed tape like a news story on deadline. |
| The Ring's Crew | |
| Director | Gore Verbinski |
| Writers | Ehren Kruger |
| Producers | Walter F. Parkes, Laurie MacDonald |
| Cinematography | Bojan Bazelli |
| Music | Hans Zimmer |
| Edited By | Craig Wood |
| Production | MacDonald/Parkes Productions, BenderSpink |
| Distributed By | DreamWorks Pictures |
Naomi Watts does more research in The Ring than a grad student on deadline, and the middle stretch drags because of it. Rachel drives, calls, digs through old records, drives some more. It’s a seven-day countdown that keeps forgetting to count. But when it goes for the scares, it lands them. The tape itself is a nightmare scrapbook: a ladder, a burning tree, a ring of light, a well. It feels like something you were never supposed to see. A panicked horse on a ferry delivers the most upsetting scene in the movie, no ghost required. Gore Verbinski soaks Seattle in so much gray-green rain you’ll want to check your basement for mold. David Dorfman plays a kid who calls his mom by her first name, and that’s creepier than half the monsters in the genre. It made $249.3 million worldwide on a reported $48M. A 7.4 because the mood holds up long after the jump scares stop working. $599 says the next unknown number that calls your phone goes straight to voicemail, and you feel smart about it.
What works: The cursed tape is a genuinely upsetting piece of filmmaking, Naomi Watts holds it all together, and the soggy gray look makes every room feel haunted.
What doesn’t: The middle is mostly research and driving around, so the dread leaks out for long stretches before the next big scare.
Who it’s for: People who like slow, moody horror more than gore, plus the last holdouts with a working VCR.
Spoilers
Rachel finds Samara’s body in the well under the cabin and thinks freeing her has ended the curse, but Noah dies anyway. She realizes she only survived because she copied the tape and someone else watched it, so she helps Aidan make a copy to pass along.
There's a story going around about a videotape: watch it, the phone rings, and you have seven days. After a sudden tragedy involving her teenage niece Katie (Amber Tamblyn), Seattle reporter Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts) starts asking questions, and the trail leads to a rented mountain cabin and an unlabeled tape. She watches it. The phone rings. Now Rachel has one week to figure out where the tape came from, with help from her ex Noah (Martin Henderson), who knows his way around video equipment, while raising their quiet, watchful son Aidan (David Dorfman). Gore Verbinski directs. One hundred fifteen minutes, seven days, one phone call you should not answer.
Anyone who still has a landline and a VCR. Let it go to voicemail.
| Naomi Watts | Rachel Keller |
| Martin Henderson | Noah Clay |
| David Dorfman | Aidan Keller |
| Daveigh Chase | Samara Morgan |
| Brian Cox | Richard Morgan |
| Shannon Cochran | Anna Morgan |
| Jane Alexander | Dr. Grasnik |
| Lindsay Frost | Ruth Embry |
| Amber Tamblyn | Katie Embry |
| Rachael Bella | Becca Kotler |
| Pauley Perrette | Beth |
- (cur | prev) 14:30, 18 October 2026 DataBot +40 Numbers refreshed: IMDb users 7.1 / 10 (408,005 votes) → 7.1 / 10 (408,076 votes).
- (cur | prev) 14:30, 17 October 2026 DataBot +480 Numbers refreshed: Worldwide box office $249.3M; Domestic box office $129.1M; Opening weekend $15M; Profit / loss (est.) +$52.7M; Rotten Tomatoes 72%; CinemaScore B−; box office chart updated; Rotten Tomatoes critics 72% (214 reviews); Metacritic 57 / 100; CinemaScore B−; IMDb users 7.1 / 10 (408,005 votes); movie.guru score 5.5.
- (cur | prev) 12:00, 17 October 2026 DataBot +2,000 Profile created from Wikipedia and Box Office Mojo: cast, crew, release dates, budget, official trailer.