It started with The Ring, the 2002 U.S. remake of the cult Japanese horror flick Ringu that grossed nearly $130 million and put the spotlight on the nascent Asian horror-movie scene.

Suddenly, studio executives realized there was life beyond John Woo, Sonny Chiba and the martial arts craze that had been Asia’s chief cinematic export since the 1970s.

Since DreamWorks scored big with The Ring-The Ring Two opens today - other Asian horror movies have been remade, including The Grudge, starring Sarah Michelle Gellar and based on Japanese director Takashi Shimizu’s Ju-On.

Other Japanese remakes are in the works: Dark Water, with Jennifer Connelly, due out Aug. 12; and The Eye, from Tom Cruise’s production company, an adaptation of the Hong Kong chiller Jian Gui.

Even more is happening on the DVD front. DVD suppliers are importing gobs of original horror films from Japan, Korea and other Asian countries.

On the forefront: Tartan Films, a British film distributor that five years ago began releasing Asian horror films theatrically in Great Britain, beginning with Ringu. The company opened a U.S. division in October and is bringing Asian horror films to this country, both theatrically and to DVD.

"It’s a relatively new invention," Tartan founder Hamish McAlpine says of Asian horror films. "About five years ago, I took home a couple of tapes and watched them over the weekend. One was Ringu, and the other was Odishon. I just went, ’Oh my God, there’s really something happening in Japan.’ "

He investigated and found a budding horror-filmmaking industry. "First it was Japan, and now Korea has picked up on it - and in fact has become the most prolific source of horror films in all of Asia."

The Tartan Asia Extreme line was launched in January with the DVD release of Phone, Korea’s top horror film in 2002 and a candidate for a remake by Madonna’s Maverick Films.

Plans call for Tartan to bring to DVD an average of two Asian horror films a month, at least six of which also will appear in theaters, chiefly in art-house markets such as New York, San Francisco, Boston and Los Angeles.

Coming up: Korea’s Tale of Two Sisters, March 29; Korea’s Memento Mori, April 12; and China’s Heroic Duo, April 26.

McAlpine is excited by all the American remakes, but he much prefers the originals.

"They have a level of weirdness you just don’t get from Western cinema," he says. "Hollywood horror films are getting watered down so they can have a PG-13 rating," and true horror fans aren’t satisfied.

Horror fan Michael Prange, 36, a medical-products salesman in Lake Forest, Calif., agrees. He has been buying Asian horror films on DVD as soon as they are released.

"I have to say I liked Phone the best," Prange says. It’s about a cell phone that kills. "It had a little bit of The Ring to it - the idea of new technology coming back to bite us. And the kid was phenomenal because she wasn’t like the kids you get in American movies, who are usually whiny. This kid was evil."

Japanese horror director Shinya Tsukamoto, director of recently released on DVD A Snake of June, says American horror films are more physical and graphic than Asian horror films, which tend to revolve around ghosts and "the spirit world."

"There are two types of horror movies," he says. "One is a good scary, in which you feel the fear, but there is a comic element to it, where it’s like a roller coaster, scary and funny.

"Then there’s bad scary, like Ringu, where you feel scared afterward and have a fear at night as you recollect your thoughts of the film."

Most Asian horror films fall into the latter category, he says. "It’s interesting, and a good thing, that they are being accepted in the Western world."

From Reuters :

LAS VEGAS (Hollywood Reporter) - After 20th Century Fox’s "Robots" wowed the family audience last weekend, horror fans should move to the front of the line this weekend as DreamWorks unveils the sequel "The Ring Two." At the same time, Buena Vista will make a bid for preteen girls with Walt Disney Pictures’ "Ice Princess."

After Gore Verbinski ("Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl") directed the first U.S. version of "The Ring," Japanese director Hideo Nakata, who scored big with the two Japanese versions in this series, "Ringu" and "Ringu 2," will make his U.S. directorial debut with the English-language sequel. Reuniting Naomi Watts with her young co-star David Dorfman, who plays her son, "Ring Two" finds the two characters relocating only to discover another case of death by videotape. Sissy Spacek joins the cast, almost 30 years after her horror debut in the classic "Carrie."

The PG-13 "Ring Two" more than likely will surpass the opening weekend of its original. In October 2002, "The Ring" experienced a slow rollout, opening to $15 million in 1,981 theaters before reaching its final domestic gross of $128.6 million. "Ring Two" is on track to beat out the highest opener for a horror movie, last year’s "The Grudge" from Sony Pictures. The Sarah Michelle Gellar starrer, also a Japanese remake, bowed at $39.1 million on 3,245 theaters. "Ring Two" will open Friday (March 18) in 3,332 theaters and could top $40 million as fans of the original come out in droves to see what kind of horror lurks in Watts’ world.