The Ring

 

The Ring franchise cannot die. Like the film’s creepy monochrome girl, it just keeps coming back for more. What started out as Ringu, a genuinely terrifying 1998 Japanese supernatural horror, has since spawned sequels, two Hollywood remakes starring Naomi Watts, and now this new sequel/reboot, entitled Rings. Here’s the first spooky trailer.

 

The basic concept runs thusly: there exists a cursed black-and-white video, featuring a creepy monochrome girl living in a well. If anyone watches it, the phone rings shortly afterwards, and the watcher dies in seven days. It usually involved the creepy monochrome girl climbing out of the television set, creepily.

The original films dealt in VHS tapes, but seeing as that format is now considered a charming antique, Rings updates things for the YouTube generation. And as that Aliens-esque pluralised title implies, there are now movies within the cursed movie. The horror is everywhere!

Brazilian filmmaker F. Javier Gutierrez is directing this one, with a cast that includes Matilda Lutz, Alex Roe, Johnny Galecki, and a bearded, wizened, mentor type Vincent D’Onofrio.

Rings arrives in cinemas on 31 October. Can't imagine why a horror movie would want to be released on that date.