20 Scariest Movies of All Time

THE RING (2002)

THE RING (2002)
Directed by Gore Verbinski

Few supernatural films have proven to be as unwittingly grounded in reality as The Ring. Released back when SARS was a particularly crappy Scrabble attempt and ''bird flu'' something that Heckle gave to Jeckle, The Ring has aged into a rare kind of thriller, one with frights that not only hold up years later, but are heightened, thanks to subsequent real-life events. With its virus-like ''villain'' (a mysterious tape that's passed from one victim to the next) and the slow-build physical deterioration it causes (nosebleeds, hallucinations), Gore Verbinski's box office hit now seems culturally clairvoyant in our disease-distressed times.