The Ring was a tentpole classic horror movie almost as soon as it was released in 2002.
The creepy concept of a video tape that kills was too much for anyone to resist, and the fact that the tape itself is viewed by the audience makes it so much more titillating.
The tone of The Ring is deadly serious, and it lands just right in the quiet of your darkened home on a Friday night. It feels morose and hopeless and creepy beyond compare.
The tape is so dark and disturbing, but so vague that it taps into some gross center of things that people fear.