A little over twenty years ago, director Hideo Nakata helped usher in the J-horror craze stateside with the introduction of Sadako, the long-haired well dwelling ghost that was tethered to a cursed videotape. It launched a massive franchise that’s spun out in various directions over the decades, including an American series and a Sadako vs. Kayako showdown spinoff. With Hideo Nakata returning to the franchise he left behind long ago in Sadako, the inclination is that he’ll bring Sadako back to her terrifying roots. The reality is worse; Sadako shows that perhaps this ghostly series is as obsolete as the videotape from which it emerged.
Sadako opens with an intriguing hook. Raised in secrecy and locked away in a closet, a little girl’s mother believes her to be the reincarnation of Sadako. Sadako does make an appearance, and the mother sets the apartment ablaze in fear. Only the daughter, a telekinetic, survives. She’s sent to the psychiatric wing of a hospital, where she meets Psychologist Mayu Akikawa. Mayu’s brother Kazuma happens to be a YouTuber, and sets out for the girl’s apartment in an attempt to create a viral video. Instead, he broadcasts images of Sadako and disappears shortly after. If you thought that set up sounds like a better take on Rings premise, you’d be wrong.
Instead, Sadako spends much of its time with the mysteries of the orphaned girl and the disappearance of Kazuma. A lot of time. With Mayu serving as the connective tissue between the orphaned girl from the apartment and her brother, she’s also the primary focus of the narrative. Her drama, her character interactions, her loneliness, and her absolute befuddlement as to what’s happening around her. It feels very much like a replay of reporter Reiko Asakana’s journey from the Ringu, but without the stakes or atmosphere that kept us invested. It’s not just that we’ve been down this same road before that’s frustrating, but that the Sadako on YouTube set up presents a wide open world of unexplored possibilities.
From the opening scene, the film makes abundant use of Sadako. Either out in the open, or consistently lurking in monitors or the background. This many movies in, why bother to hide the ghost, right? Except, Sadako no longer has the same impact. Nothing about her scare tactics have changed in any way, and twenty years later, Sadako has ceased to be scary in any way. Even when the third act attempts to shake things up in setting and mythology, the core remains unchanged. All of the scares fall completely flat. Except for one final moment before the end credits roll, but by then it’s far too late to care. There’s even a post-credit scene, but again, it’s too late to care.
The worst thing a horror movie can be is boring. Sadako is that in spades. Despite a premise that suggests an attempt to modernize this franchise, nothing has changed at all. The look, the plot, the scares all feel as if this 2019 movie was made in 2000, during the peak J-horror moment. What once made Sadako so terrifying – her unnerving crawl, her appearance- has now become far too familiar and ineffective. J-horror deserves a comeback, but not with this franchise. It’s time we lay Sadako to rest for good.
Sadako crawled out of her well for the North American premiere at Fantasia International Film Festival on July 11, 2019.
