Actors: Satomi Ishihara, Kôji Seto, Yûsuke Yamamoto, Tsutomu Takahashi
Directors: Tsutomu Hanabusa
Rated: Unrated
Studio: Well Go USA
Release Date: June 4, 2013
Run Time: 96 minutes
Film: 2 out of 5 stars
3D: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Extras: N/A
I am abig sucker for Japanese horror, especially 3D and especially from “The Ring” series. But right from the tagline I cringed for this title “Sadako is Always Hungry. And She’s No Longer Alone.” Never alone? That was the whole point of the original “The Ring”. Sadako was this eerie ghost that was haunting everyone. She is also now upgraded from VHS tapes to online videos. The whole story is ridiculous and I wouldn’t waste my time on this even if you are the biggest fan of “The Ring” series. The film also calls itself “The Terrifying Conclusion”…but there is not concluded here. In fact it just leaves questions like “what the hell did I just waste my 96 minutes doing?”. What happened to Japanese horror? Can it please get back to its roots and start being scary again? This series has certainly run out of steam and originality!
Official Synopsis: Sadako waits, a vicious spirit, hungry for blood and souls. What began as a haunted videotape, passed from hand to cursed hand all those years ago in THE RING, has only gotten easier to find. Sadako waits. And it’s not just on tape anymore. At a local high school, there is a rumor about an online video of someone committing suicide. If it were only a prank, or the work of a deranged artist in town, the students wouldn’t be killing themselves after watching it, would they? The police would have a theory about the quickly-growing body count? And what about the woman in white with long hair? Sadako is always hungry. And she’s no longer alone.
With all the 3D Blu-ray that I have seen from Well Go USA, i.e. “The Shock Labyrinth 3D” and “Tormented 3D”, there has been some mega ghosting with the third dimension effect. The The 1080 transfer is sharp and works well with the 3D effects, which in this film actually looks quite awesome. Too bad the the film itself is a bore and leaves you tearing your hair out. All I have to say is…CGI creatures, BOO! There is a Japanese only DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track, which works well with the little suspense in the film. There is also ZERO special features included here. But fans rejoice, “The Ring” series is not dead, we have more coming since Tsutomu Hanabusa has just completed production on “Sadako 2 3D”. Hopefully he will learn from his mistakes on this film or just leave this franchise to die or get rebooted like everything else.