10 Most Terrifying Female Horror Movie Villains

Ring set the standard for J-Horror right out of the gates. Based on a trilogy of sci-fi novels about a cursed videotape, the story revolves around Reiko’s desperate race against time to lay the ghost (Sadako) to rest and save her own life and that of her son. The character of Sadako has her roots in Oiwa, a ghost from the traditional stage play of Yotsuya Kaidan, as both have the similar physical characteristics of long, ragged hair and a white dress.

Using traditional Japanese theatrical dance techniques of Kabuki, actor Rie Ino’o was filmed moving backwards and the footage was run in reverse, giving Sadako her unsettling, jerking movements, also in keeping with traditional Japanese ghost stories and tales of the ‘Onryo.’

As Sadako crawled from the television screen in the final, heart stopping sequence, Ring earned a reputation as a new kind of horror movie – alien, unfamiliar and totally unseen in western horror. As the J-Horror phenomenon spread, soon other gems such as Ju-On and Pulse were making waves of their own.

2002 saw the release of the American remake, The Ring, and while not as fresh or as interesting as the original, the film was a huge success and brought many to the experience of Asian horror and the terrifying female villains that inhabit the folklore.