the director of The Ring talks about the film with Scifi Wire.

"Gore Verbinski, who directed the upcoming supernatural horror film The Ring, told SCI FI Wire that he made changes to the hit 1998 Japanese film on which it is based in order to make the English-language version more accessible to American audiences."

Translation: Had to dumb it down and make it simpler for the simple American masses, who thought Beavis and Butthead were clever.