The J-horror craze that swept through America in the early 2000s is largely thanks to Japanese director Hideo Nakata. In 1998 he created Ring, which was later brought stateside in 2002 as The Ring. He then went on to direct 2005’s sequel, The Ring Two, directing a sequel to a remake of his original film. The horror film Dark Water is also based on one of Nakata’s films. The Ring franchise never really went away in Japan, but even it could use a fresh coat of paint, and Nakata has returned to make that happen with Sadako.
The trailer for Sadako is basically a soft reboot of the original franchise, which saw people cursed by watching a VHS tape. You may recall that “Sadako” is the name of the demonic female antagonist of the Ring movies, and in this new film a different group of people who make Youtube videos in an attempt to reawaken Sadako’s Curse, which sounds like a really stupid thing to do.
Here’s the synopsis: The film will star Elaiza Ikeda as the main character Mayu Akigawa, a psychology counselor who gets involved in an incident with Yusuke Ishida, played by Takashi Tsukamoto, who will try to fix it. Hiroya Shimizu will play the part of Mayu’s younger brother Kazuma Akigawa who becomes a YouTuber to try and awaken Sadako’s curse. Himeka Himejima will play Jinko, a mysterious girl who lost her memory and is taken in at the hospital Mayu works at. Renn Kiriyama will play Mayu’s colleague Minori Fujii.
Sadako will have its North American premiere today at Fantasia Fest.
