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‘The Ring’ and ‘The Grudge’ Spirits Battle in Second ‘Sadako vs Kayako’ Trailer!

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Earlier this week we told you that Paramount hopes Rings, their long-gestured sequel to The Ring and The Ring Two, will become an annual Halloween event.

Gore Verbinski’s 2002 The Ring, starring Naomi Watts as a journalist must investigate a mysterious videotape which seems to cause the death of anyone in a week of viewing it, was a remake of Hideo Nakata’s Japanese Ringu (1998). I still consider it to be one of the scariest and most unnerving horror films ever made.

And while The Ring was one of the most successful horror films ever here in the States, the Ringu franchise was also huge in its native land. It started the “J-horror” craze, and is responsible for the birth of the 2000 made-for-TV movie Ju-On, which would also get a U.S. remake in 2004 (the film was produced by Sam Raimi’s Ghost House, and its success is one of the reasons we never saw Ash vs. Freddy vs. Jason) under the moniker The Grudge.

While both franchises centered around a curse and feature a super scary evil spirit, they were inherently different stories, but had equal the spooks. I’m unsure which is bigger, but there are way more sequels to Ju-On than that of Ringu.

We’re pretty excited for Rings to reignite the franchise here in the States this coming October, but there’s a primer coming out of Japan on June 18th.

As previously reported, after a brilliant April Fool’s Day joke went viral, Kadokawa and NBCUniversal Japan have joined forces for the ultimate J-horror battle: Sadako vs Kayako.

Grotesque director Koji Shiraishi is behind the camera with Mizuki Yamamoto caught in the middle of the two battling horror icons.

We’ve already seen a teaser trailer, but now have a full-length version to go along with a handful of awesome screengrabs.

It looks as if both stories are seemingly separated, at least until the two spirits come across the same victim in the final shot (it reminds me of Monica Keena’s scene in Freddy vs. Jason). The coolest shot is that of Kayako being choked by Sadako’s famous hair, although the trailer loses its power with an awful Japanese pop song playing over much of the footage.

Ju-On: The Final, billed as the final Ju-On, opened in Japan last June, while Sam Raimi is producing a re-remake here in the States.

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Horror movie fanatic who co-founded Bloody Disgusting in 2001. Producer on Southbound, V/H/S/2/3/94, SiREN, Under the Bed, and A Horrible Way to Die. Chicago-based. Horror, pizza and basketball connoisseur. Taco Bell daily. Franchise favs: Hellraiser, Child's Play, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, Scream and Friday the 13th. Horror 365 days a year.

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Matilda Firth Joins the Cast of Director Leigh Whannell’s ‘Wolf Man’ Movie

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Pictured: Matilda Firth in 'Christmas Carole'

Filming is underway on The Invisible Man director Leigh Whannell’s Wolf Man for Universal and Blumhouse, which will be howling its way into theaters on January 17, 2025.

Deadline reports that Matilda Firth (Disenchanted) is the latest actor to sign on, joining Christopher Abbott (Poor Things),  Julia Garner (The Royal Hotel), and Sam Jaeger.

The project will mark Whannell’s second monster movie and fourth directing collaboration with Blumhouse Productions (The Invisible Man, Upgrade, Insidious: Chapter 3).

Wolf Man stars Christopher Abbott as a man whose family is being terrorized by a lethal predator.

Writers include Whannell & Corbett Tuck as well as Lauren Schuker Blum & Rebecca Angelo.

Jason Blum is producing the film. Ryan Gosling, Ken Kao, Bea Sequeira, Mel Turner and Whannell are executive producers. Wolf Man is a Blumhouse and Motel Movies production.

In the wake of the failed Dark Universe, Leigh Whannell’s The Invisible Man has been the only real success story for the Universal Monsters brand, which has been struggling with recent box office flops including the comedic Renfield and period horror movie The Last Voyage of the Demeter. Giving him the keys to the castle once more seems like a wise idea, to say the least.

Wolf Man 2024

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