Sadako vs. Kayako is a 2016 Japanese film that could better be renamed The Ring vs. The Grudge. Yes, this is the film that lets the ghost girl from The Ring fight the ghost girl (and creepy cat-yowling boy) from The Grudge. It seems that, in Japan, both series have five or six films each so it makes sense they would go for the gimmick of a versus flick.
Basically, this is a Ring film about two college girls who watch the cursed video intercut with high school girl who moves into a house next door to the cursed Grudge house (and dumb people keep going in and getting killed by the long-haired Grudge ghost and the creepy cat-yowling boy). None of this makes sense if you haven’t seen either the American or Japansese version of the Ring/Ringu or The Grudge/Ju-On.
Anyhow, back to the movie – the girls cursed by the Ring video seek out the assistance of a weird rock ‘n roll psychic wizard (or something) and his little blind girl companion. They figure the only way to save a person cursed by Sadako (The Ring ghost) is watch the video inside Kadako’s (the Grudge ghost) house. In that way, two curses will apply to the girls and the ghosts will have to fight it out.
It’s a fine enough idea for the seventh or eighth film in a franchise, I guess… but like a lot of vs. movies, they don’t get around to the fight for a long time. About an hour and fifteen minutes into a ninety minute movie – and when they do fight, you basically have a slow-moving girl with hair over her face “fighting” a croaking girl who creeps on the ground (and a creepy cat-yowling boy). But that’s the movie I rented so what should I have expected?
This isn’t a very good movie and I imagine you figured that out without having to rent it. I wish it had more fun with its premise and there’s a possibility some of the scares are meant to be funny. I mean, I laughed at them but I don’t know if I was supposed to. The weird psychic wizard dude (who, charitably, might have been from one of the Japanese sequels to either movie) and his odd blind partner were… I dunno… funny is the wrong word but certainly odd and maybe meant to be tongue-in-cheek. Or not.
I suspect I may be missing something either from the Japanese sequels I haven’t seen or maybe even something culturally. Either way, I was mostly bored by a generic Ring/Grudge movie until they got around to fighting… and that wasn’t very interesting either.
Score: 66