Sadako DX

The Ring and Ju-On (The Grudge) are two of my favourite Japanese horror franchises. I'm kinda sad that both Hoga and Hollywood neglecting both of these franchises and I'm here waiting for more sequels, reboots, remakes and spin-offs.

This latest installment is science focused with unnecessary humor, sudden loud noises that was annoying af and also a sequel to Spiral (1998). I loved the production quality, cast (except Kazuma Kawamura, his clumsy nonsense was irritating and one of the worst parts of this movie) and the familiar feel. But unfortunately the overall quality was quite disappointing.

I saw the movie at the theater today and it did not disappoint. The advantages of the film were the following: it was well set, the atmosphere was adequate, the youthful characters were so unpleasant that they all deserved to die for idiots (and the film leaves us a great surprise about them), there is a strange but fast plot and the ending is unexpected and fantastic. There are only three jumpscares and the sequences where Sadako appears are extraordinary. By far the Japanese are much better at treating their characters than Hollywood cinema. This film is a thorough demonstration of how to make good cinema without insulting the intelligence of the viewer. And it has another plus: it makes you laugh. Very good.

The Japanese saga had concluded with its previous film, but this film was made as a continuation of the original sequel Raisen, of which very few remember. Taking that into account, it is clear that Ringu has different timelines, as well as an alternate reality that has been seen in the trilogy made by Hollywood. Sadako (2019) was made to conclude the timeline constituted by Ringu and Ringu 2. Sadako DX was made to continue the other timeline constituted by Ringu and Raisen, but it does not seem to take much into account the 2 parts of Sadako 3D, which They are also part of this timeline. Sadako DX is probably a second timeline in the Raisen canon, but there was no need for it. The film discards a lot about the original Sadako mythology to present something modern and updated. What could have been something to present a new perspective on Ringu ends up being a very poorly developed concept. The movie itself is a complete disaster in so many ways. The cinematography and Sadako's scenes are the only fascinating thing this movie has going for it. The script is really bad and very poorly structured. The first films in this franchise had a mostly wordy script and a slow atmosphere that helped a lot with suspense and keeping the viewer's eyes glued to the screen. In this movie that doesn't happen mostly because the pace is too fast and frenetic to be able to follow the story. Many of the performances are overly exaggerated, to the point that the film ends up being an unintentional comedy. The filmmakers themselves decided to add humor to the film, but that humor doesn't stick at all. The film makes the same mistake as Seed Of Chucky, Halloween Resurrection or the Sleepaway Camp sequels, but a million times worse. The dialogue is quite bad and includes forced jokes. Like the story, the characters have no depth. The matter between Ayaka Ichijo's father and her sister Futaba could have been deepened and the situation of the two of them could have improved. Maeda is too loud and loud a character who becomes too incompetent. The Kenshin thing was even too predictable. Sadako is the only one worth anything, but she feels too wasted. Some digital effects are acceptable, such as Sadako's hair sequence, but little CGI is used and the lack of budget is so noticeable that the little CGI used looks poor. There are so many absurd situations that the film makes no sense and instead of feeling like a Ringu film, it feels like a poorly executed parody that doesn't take itself seriously. Even the Sadako moments that occur during the end credits are a mockery of the franchise. It's not scary and it doesn't even generate tension, rather it makes others laugh and feel sorry for themselves. Creating a new version of the Sadako mythology based on the pandemic we have experienced and even the use of social networks are things that do not fit at all in this film. It is not clear if the humor of this film is something according to Japanese culture, since Japan has a quite bizarre sense of humor, but it overshadows too much of that Japanese horror that has always characterized the franchise. In conclusion, Sadako DX is definitely the worst installment of the entire franchise and a mockery of it and Sadako. The film ruins and destroys the good image that Ringu has always had as a good work of Japanese horror cinema and for this reason it is a film that should never have been made. It would have been much better to have let the saga end forever in that final chapter that Hideo Nakata brought us in the previous installment. My final rating for this movie is a 2/10.

"Sadako DX" is a bad movie that tries to mix nostalgia with modern elements, targeting generation Z, the result is a disastrous script that at first manages to bring nostalgia but soon becomes ridiculous when trying to parody TikTok trends and Twitter. The soundtrack is irrelevant, the editing gets tired and even seems to have been done by an internet influencer, the cinematography is lousy as if emulating an episode of some cheap children's TV series. In the midst of the chaos, the only thing that stands out is the performance of Fuka Koshiba who tries to give interest to her character, the rest of the cast is poorly directed and mainly the director did a totally horrendous job. Definitely a horror movie, but speaking of the horror that results as a final product. "Ringu" should have remained in the analog era and not touch the digital times.

Of all the Ring and Sadako related films I've seen, this is the only one that truly isn't scary at all. Many of them are bad, many are underwhelming, but every one has at least a scene here or there that's genuinely scary. None of that here. Most of this movie is just unfunny banter between highly forgettable characters.

This movie deserves some points for at least trying to evolve the concept of the Ring, and doing something new. The curse, or virus, "mutates", meaning the 7 days time frame is now only 24 hours. While this seems an obvious attempt to appeal to Gen Z's short attention spans, it does show at least some attempt at new ideas. There are more ideas like that in the movie, that I won't share, because of spoilers. There are some homages to the original, in the sense that the main characters have to do a lot of detective work to figure out the curse. This gets so specific after a while that I honestly lost the plot for a bit. It even has a call back reference to the small pox virus, as written about in the original novel.

Despite all this, the movie fails at its basic task: scaring the viewer. It seems that the further this franchise goes, the more Sadako becomes just a footnote in her own story. She's hardly even seen in the film, which is mostly taken up by the increasingly elaborate curse and its intricate mechanics.

At the end of the movie, the whole thing turns into a straight up spoof, with the movie itself being keenly aware that it's not being serious anymore. As wacky as some of the other installments are (Looking at you, Sadako 3D number one and two), they were never intended to be funny. This movie clearly is. This is truly a sign that the franchise has lost its way, resorting to comedy out the sheer inability to frighten us any longer.

What a shame.