There’s something to be said for the late 90’s/early 00’s Japanese horror cinema before everything just went full-gore and we were left with more shock and gross-out torture stuff as opposed to just creepy things. Stuff like Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Cure and Pulse helped to solidify that golden era of horror, much like Takashi Miike’s Audition and Ichi the Killer set new standards for what horror could be. Two of the most popular Japanese horror films of that time were Ju-on: The Grudge and Ring (Ringu to us nerds), both featured strange, folk-tale-like female characters that freaked the hell out of audiences.
It freaked out so many audiences that both films bled over into American culture, prompting not-so-great remakes of both films for American audiences. Trust me, if you’ve only seen the remakes, hunt down the originals, both had a certain feel to them that were lost in translation. Much like Jack Donaghy preached throughout the run of 30 Rock, corporate synergy has become all the craze lately. What better way to synergize two legendary film franchises than to pit them against each other in a very Japanese take on Freddy vs. Jason?
According to the AV Club, Sadako vs. Kayako, the film pitting the main creeps from The Grudge and Ring against each other, is due out on June 16th in Japan. Here’s to hoping that it fares better artistically than Hollywood’s attempt to blend beloved horror franchises together. If not, I’m sure that it’ll still make someone a whole lot of money. How could it not?
(via AV Club)
