When the 1998 film Ringu aka Ring hit theaters it took the world by storm becoming not only the highest grossing horror film in Japan, but spawned two sequels, a video game as well as two American versions. With not much word of the series for some time it's back with an all-new installment named for the famous focal point of the series Sadako 3D, but can it live up to the creepy nature that made the original film so great or is it just another forgettable sequel to a once great franchise.
Sadako 3D follows a high school teacher who discovers Internet footage that her students have been watching of someone's suicide that is rumored to drive anyone who watches it to commit suicide as well. While she doubts it at first, she soon discovers that it is actually of a man whose intention is to create chaos in the world by bringing back Sadako and her curse. Initially this film takes some interesting directions shifting the curse from the VHS to update it to the current Internet nature. There are some creative moments using cell phones and computer screens that should have delivered but never really push the envelope the way it should have. Even with these issues the film still could have worked pretty well, but due to the decision for 3D they opted to over saturate the film with CGI effects that were not all that great. Part of the charm of the original films was just the pure creepy especially the Sadako character. She did very little in the originals other than climb out of the well and inch towards you, but the look and vibe was very effective. Sadly that is all gone with the exception of a few moments until the end when things change completely. This series has always been a cursed haunted genre film, but this entry takes it out of that all together at one point turning it into somewhat of a monster film losing the entire point of this series. While it loses the Ring aspect, it still could have been pretty cool had they not used some pretty poor CGI to bring these creatures to life.
This movie had lots if issues, but all stuff that could have still worked well had they not gone complete CG for everything. Fans of the original film will most likely have some real issues with this film as it plays more like a reboot than a sequel and fails to live up to the classic that came before it. Word is that there is a sequel to this film coming as well and hopefully they will take some of the good ideas here and deliver something a lot better.
Sadako 3D follows a high school teacher who discovers Internet footage that her students have been watching of someone's suicide that is rumored to drive anyone who watches it to commit suicide as well. While she doubts it at first, she soon discovers that it is actually of a man whose intention is to create chaos in the world by bringing back Sadako and her curse. Initially this film takes some interesting directions shifting the curse from the VHS to update it to the current Internet nature. There are some creative moments using cell phones and computer screens that should have delivered but never really push the envelope the way it should have. Even with these issues the film still could have worked pretty well, but due to the decision for 3D they opted to over saturate the film with CGI effects that were not all that great. Part of the charm of the original films was just the pure creepy especially the Sadako character. She did very little in the originals other than climb out of the well and inch towards you, but the look and vibe was very effective. Sadly that is all gone with the exception of a few moments until the end when things change completely. This series has always been a cursed haunted genre film, but this entry takes it out of that all together at one point turning it into somewhat of a monster film losing the entire point of this series. While it loses the Ring aspect, it still could have been pretty cool had they not used some pretty poor CGI to bring these creatures to life.
This movie had lots if issues, but all stuff that could have still worked well had they not gone complete CG for everything. Fans of the original film will most likely have some real issues with this film as it plays more like a reboot than a sequel and fails to live up to the classic that came before it. Word is that there is a sequel to this film coming as well and hopefully they will take some of the good ideas here and deliver something a lot better.