The Correct Order To Watch The Ring Franchise

Koji Suzuki's novel "Ring" was first published in 1991, and no one could have guessed that the simple, tech-based ghost story would spawn a decades-long, worldwide media franchise that incorporates multiple movies, crossovers, comics, audio dramas, and video games. If one does a deep dive into the entire "Ring" series, one will uncover a massively complicated mythos that repeatedly peels back layers of reality to reveal an onion-like media metafiction that Marshall McLuhan would be proud of.

The premise of "Ring" is wicked and fun, and would have been all the more terrifying in 1991 when VHS was still in vogue. In the book, an investigative reporter named Asakawa finds a cursed video cassette of a surreal, 20-minute short film. At the end of the video, a captain informs him that he has seven days to live. Asakawa takes the threat seriously, as several teenage girls who watched the video have already died. Asakawa investigates the source of the video and finds it is connected to a dead girl named Sadako, who might have created it via psychic projection (and yes, pyschic photography is a thing). The images of the video reveal what Sadako went through before she died, and it seems her plight was bleak. Now she haunts the world in VHS form.

Suzuki wrote five sequels to "Ring," and it was adapted into a series of successful comic books starting in 1996. Since 1995, there have been 14 feature films based on the book. There were two "Ring" TV shows in 1999 which served as "final chapters," although the most recent "Ring" film was released in 2022. DreamWorks famously remade "Ring" as "The Ring" in 2002, and that film spawned two English-language sequels and a short.

Let's trace the complex series.

In the order of their release (the "correct" order, if you will), here are all the films, shorts, and TV shows in the "Ring" franchise (all of which are Japanese unless otherwise marked): 

• "Ring: Kanzenban" (1995) — TV movie
• "Ring" (1998) — feature
• "Rasen" a.k.a. "Spiral" (1998) — feature
• "Ring: The Final Chapter" (1999) – -TV series
• "Ring 2" (1999) — feature
• "The Ring Virus" (1999) — feature, Korean
• "Rasen" a.k.a. "Spiral" (1999) — TV series
• "Ring 0: Birthday" (2000) — feature
• "The Ring" (2002) — feature, American
• "Rings" (2005) — short, American
• "The Ring Two" (2005) — feature, American
• "Sadako 3D" (2012) — feature
• "Sadako 3D 2" (2015) — feature
• "Sadako vs. Kayako" (2016) — feature
• "Rings" (2017) — feature, American
• "Sadako" (2019) — feature
• "Sadako DX" (2022) — feature

The above list does not contain the eight manga books based on "Ring," nor does it include the video games "The Ring: Terror's Realm" and "The Ring: Infinity," both released in 2000.

The 2016 film "Sadako vs. Kayako" is a crossover with the "Ju-on" film series, another haunting story that rose to prominence at the same time as "Ring." Like "The Ring," "Ju-on," aka "The Grudge," has spawned a massive media franchise unto itself. The "Ju-on" series sports six novels, 12 movies, two shorts, a TV series, and a video game. It was appropriate that Sadako and Kayako should meet and do a psychic battle; it's a match-up to rival Freddy and Jason. If one wants to be truly exhaustive about it, a complete list of all the "Ring" and "Grudge" media will be included below.

"The Ring Virus" is a Korean remake of the 1998 original wherein Samara was renamed Eun-Suh.

In the Japanese books and Korean remake, Sadako is intersex. In the Japanese and American films, she is female.

The three American features (and 2005 short film) all share a unique continuity wherein Asakawa was renamed Rachel Keller and played by actor Naomi Watts. Sadako was renamed Samara. The inaugural myth about a haunted VHS cassette remains intact. The 2002 film, directed by Gore Verbinski, was a massive hit and served to introduce American audiences to the "Ring" franchise in earnest. The 2005 short took place in between "The Ring" and "The Ring Two," while the 2017 feature took place many years later.

The six "Ring" novels are pretty wild, and one of them — 1998's "Loop" — reveals that the first two novels were a mere Virtual Reality simulation. The fourth book, "Birthday," is a collection of short stories set throughout the "Ring" continuity, while the fifth book, "S," takes place 25 years after book #2, 1995's "Spiral." The sixth and final book, 2013's "Tide," is a sequel to "Loop" and deals more with the VR world.

As mentioned above, "Ring" crossed over with "The Grudge," implying a shared ghostly universe. Here is the complete master list of all the "Ring" and "Grudge" movies stacked together:

• "Ring: Kanzenban" (1995) — TV movie
• "Ring" (1998) — feature
• "Scratch 1: Katasumi" (1998) — short
• "4444444444" (1998) — short
• "Rasen" a.k.a. "Spiral" (1998) — feature
• "Ring: The Final Chapter" (1999) — TV series
• "Ring 2" (1999) — feature
• "The Ring Virus" (1999) — feature, Korean
• "Rasen" a.k.a. "Spiral" (1999) — TV series
• "Ring 0: Birthday" (2000) — feature
• "Ju-On: The Curse" (2000) — feature
• "Ju-On: The Curse 2" (2000) — feature
• "The Ring" (2002) — feature, American
• "Ju-On: The Grudge" (2002) — feature
• "Ju-On: The Grudge 2" (2003) — feature
• "The Grudge" (2004) — feature, American
• "Rings" (2005) — short, American
• "The Ring Two" (2005) — feature, American
• "Tales from the Grudge" (2006) — shorts collection, American
• "The Grudge 2" (2006) — feature, American
• "The Grudge 3" (2009) — feature, American
• "Ju-On: White Ghost" (2009) — shorts collection
• "Ju-On: Black Ghost" (2009) — shorts collection
• "Sadako 3D" (2012) — feature
• "Sadako 3D 2" (2013) — feature
• "Ju-On: The Beginning of the End" (2014) — feature
• "Ju-On: The Final Curse" (2015) — feature
• "Sadako vs. Kayako" (2016) — feature
• "Rings" (2017) — feature, American
• "Sadako" (2019) — feature
• "The Grudge" (2020) — feature, American
• "Ju-On: Origins" (2020) — TV series
• "Sadako DX" (2022) — feature

That's 33 titles, all told. Watch as many of them on VHS as you can.