Fantasia 2019 review: SADAKO updates the Ring franchise for the YouTube generation

More than two decades after he kick-started the long-running Japanese horror Ring franchise, director Hideo Nakata returns with Sadako, named for the long-haired, vengeful spirit that has terrorized audiences through eight films to date, including the effective US remake back in 2002.

Nakata takes a restrained approach with this film, which serves as an accessible entry point for fans that might feel burdened by the title character’s long cinematic history. Sadako balances the story of three characters, and their interactions with the Sadako spirit that ultimately brings them together. Mayu Akigawa (Mayu Akigawa) plays a psychologist who comes into contact with a mysterious young girl named Jinko (Himeka Himejima), who is essentially mute following a tragic accident. Added into the mix is Mayu’s younger brother Kazuma (Hiroya Shimizu), who is trying to make his name as an online streaming personality: he just needs one outlandish stunt to go viral first, which leads him to increasingly dangerous outings.

With a great throwback electronic soundtrack, Sadako has some genuinely creepy moments, even if the film never reaches the bone-chilling horror of the original film. Nakata is more interested in sustaining tension than in outright jump scares, which manages to lend the film an air of sustained unease. Nakata even manages to sneak in a whole found footage element to the film, when Kazuma embarks on a live-streaming expedition to the site of a supposedly haunted apartment building.

Sadako manages to expand on the world of its title character, adding in a tragic new backstory that deepens the spirit’s motivations without ever succumbing to over-explaining her world (the film still utilizes the familiar grainy, VHS-looking curse video from the earlier films; apparently Sadako hasn’t heard of HD).

Sadako doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it offers up a well-made entry in the Ring franchise that does justice to the original source material. Kazuma maintains the creepy aesthetic of the original film, and adding in a wacky streaming personality into the mix manages to make the film relevant to younger viewers who’ve grown up with a cell phone in their hand. It might have been even more effective if the film really tried to update the Sadako curse for today’s technology (even TV sets are nearly outdated for Millennials), but Sadako should still manage to make straight black hair (and children in general) scary again.