While most installments of the franchise are dramatic supernatural horror fiction, other genres are also explored with the novel Loop (1998) being science fiction-focused, and the manga series Sadako-san and Sadako-chan (2019) and Sadako at the End of the World (2020) and feature film Sadako DX (2022) being comedy-focused.

The video tape was created by a psychic, Sadako Yamamura, who was murdered by her adoptive father and thrown into a well.

In 2016, Sadako vs. Kayako, directed by Kōji Shiraishi, was released, a crossover of the Ju-on series of horror films.

It features Sadakaya, a ghost that resulted from the fusion of Sadako and the Ju-on antagonist Kayako Saeki.

It saw the return of director Hideo Nakata to the Japanese film series for the first time since Ring 2, 20 years prior.

[6][7] The film stars Fuka Koshiba as a college student attempting to unravel the curse of Sadako with the help of a psychic and a fortune teller.

[12] The third adaptation, of Nakata's Ring 2 film, was written by Hiroshi Takahashi and illustrated by Meimu, was released on February 3, 1999.

[14] The fourth adaptation, titled Spiral (らせん, Rasen), is based on the novel and film of the same name.

[20] The seventh, named Sadako-san and Sadako-chan, was published in February 2019, before the release of Sadako, as a comedy-oriented tie-in sequel to the film.

The Ring Virus was the first remake to be made, in 1999, where the villain is renamed as Park Eun-suh, who is intersex, as Sadako was in the books.

In 2002, an English-language remake was made, titled The Ring, where the killer is renamed as Samara Morgan, who is a preteen instead of an adult.

The film follows journalist Rachel Keller as she investigates a videotape that may have killed four teenagers (including her niece).

Jake Pierce, a young teenager, watches a cursed video tape after joining a teen cult named "Rings".

High school student Jake Pierce tries to make his girlfriend Emily watch the cursed videotape.

After discovering that Emily covered her eyes and didn't watch the tape, he is killed by Samara Morgan.

Rachel Keller learns of Jake's death and realizes she has to save her son Aidan from Samara.

The story follows Julia who becomes worried about her boyfriend when he explores a dark subculture surrounding a mysterious videotape said to kill the watcher seven days after they view the tape.

[22] Taka Ichise Takenori Sento Shinya Kawai Takenori Sento Shin Ishihara Masao Nagai Takasige Ichise Tsutomu TakahashiBased onSby Koji Suzuki Noriaki Sugihara Based onSby Koji Suzuki Based onTideby Koji Suzuki The original 1991 novel Ring sold 500,000 copies by January 1998, and 1.5 million copies by July 2000.