The title Sadako vs. Kayako promises one very simple thing: that the ghostly threats from two seminal J-horror franchises are going to face off. It sounds like a pretty silly concept, but it isn’t inherently without value. The history of cinema is filled with mashups like this, and there’s no specific reason why this shouldn’t work. But this film barely lives up to the promise in the title. It takes forever for the titular event to happen, and along the way, the film features few of the elements that made either franchise memorable.
College student Yuri (Mizuki Yamamoto), while helping her friend Natsumi (Aimi Satsukawa) transfer an old wedding video on to DVD, comes into possession of a cursed video tape that summons the vengeful spirit Sadako (Elly Nanami). At the same time, teenager Suzuka (Tina Tamashiro) and her family move into a new house. The house next door is home to Kayako and Toshio (Rina Endo and Rintaro Shibamoto), mother-and-son ghosts known for killing everyone who steps into the house. In an attempt to deal with the threat of both threats, exorcists-for-hire Kyozo and Tamao (Masanobu Ando and Maiko Kikuchi) conspire to pit them against each other.
The film mainly plays out as a bad installment of The Ring. It plot is mainly moved by the watching of the cursed videotape, and the effort of those who saw it to try and deal with Sadako. The Kayako stuff is incidental at best. Suzuka, who is the main focus of the Kayako segments, isn’t even really in danger for most of the movie. One would naturally assume, then, that this film would be more of a treat for fans of The Ring. But the film doesn’t care enough about the elements of either movie to have them function as credible new installments of either franchise.
The film basically throws away a central piece of lore of The Ring. And its horror scenes have much less to do with the slow tension of its ghostly threat approaching the victims. This film is quicker to apply violence, the film much more prone to sudden bursts of gruesomeness. One could credit the movie for trying to establish its own voice, but what it presents isn’t actually very interesting. It’s just a bad version of J-horror, the movie spinning its wheels on random deaths, stalling for time until it can get its two threats together.
And that takes way too long. And when it happens, it’s pretty underwhelming. After all the contrivances to get these two threats in the same room, the film barely shows the two of them fighting each other. This was the film’s opportunity to really go strange, to create memorable visuals distinct from either movie. What ensues isn’t very entertaining, nor is it visually appealing. The film also loses something in the English, which is pretty badly done. Then again, the bad dubbing is almost appropriate for the level that the film is trying to achieve.
One doesn’t enter a film like Sadako vs. Kayako with great expectations. And yet, it still manages to disappoint. At best, one could hope for what the title promises: a movie about two powerful ghosts really duking it out, using all of their strange powers against each other, and creating all manner of strange, unsettling visuals as a result. But the film keeps the two apart for two long, and their clash is surprisingly subdued. Neither fans of The Ring nor fans of The Grudge will find anything of real value in this movie.
My Rating:
