A group of teenage friends are found dead, their bodies grotesquely contorted, their faces twisted in terror. When a journalist sets out to investigate the shocking phenomenon, she uncovers a creepy urban legend about a supposedly cursed videotape, the contents of which causes anyone who views it to die within a week. In 1998, director Hideo Nakata unleashed a chilling tale of technological terror on unsuspecting audiences, which redefined the horror genre and launched the J-horror boom in the West. The film spawned a slew of remakes, reimaginations and imitators, but none could match the power of Nakata’s original, which melded traditional Japanese folklore with contemporary anxieties about the spread of technology.

Reviews

‘The finale, too, still feels as twisted, bizarre and down-right nightmarish as it did all those years ago.’
★★★★★
David Jenkins, Time Out