SPOILER DISCUSSION
1. After seeing Suzuka’s friend with the tarot cards and the eerie way Shiraishi captures the revelation of “death” with his smooth camera movements, I was hoping that she would be revealed as another kind of psychic who would join the battle. Imagine a team of psychics teaming up with different strengths against an army of Japanese demons. Sign me up for that movie please.
2. Morishige’s death had me laughing uncontrollably. Not only does does he not get to actually meet Sadako, but he actually gets his head flattened like a pancake. I have no idea how this death scene got approved, but it’s an absolute joke that feels inconsistent with Sadako’s powers and visually drains the scene of any possible scary factor. It’s also a shame because watching him interact with the psychics would have been great. His obsession with the supernatural and his general fanboy attitude bouncing off their sardonic wit might have led to some entertaining sequences.
3. The most frustrating part about the movie is Shiraishi is a talented director who actually directs scenes fairly well. The way he doesn’t show the audience the initial cursed video tape as the characters watch it for the first two times generates anticipation for what could be so horrifying on the tape/what it could be compared to the original tape. Then when Yūri finally watches it and the audience gets to see it along with her, it’s revealed to just be a disheveled looking hallway that Sadako eerily walks down. It’s such a letdown. I was expecting some trippy, surreal barrage of images like the original but given an update to match with the new times. It’s clear he knows how to create an eerie mood – forget his found footage movies- even in this movie he utilizes Sadako in the background for flash seconds to great effect. It’s why all the conclusions to these scare threads feels like such a letdown. They pale in comparison to the buildup to those scenes.
4. Suzuka deciding to upload the tape online was the one part of the movie I didn’t see coming and was genuinely excited for. Sure, it didn’t make the most sense given how little we knew about her character, but the barebones explanation for her grief overwhelming her decision making was good enough. Hearing her explain how she removed it felt like a bit of a letdown – if you’re going to make your character whack, let them explore that for a while. Hell, just have her explain it as trying to appease Sadako by spreading it and have her live only to be attacked by Sadakayako at the end as a “gotcha” because technically it’s a different curse. Would’ve been a nice subversion.
Either that or have it play a role in the psychics plan – like the spreading of Sadako to so many people makes her susceptible to X. Explore the idea in an interesting way. Don’t just ignore it for the boring plot. Make it part of the plot to elevate it. Just another way the movie fumbles something interesting.
5. I will admit, watching Sadako rip Toshio into the TV is amazing. It’s honestly the highlight the movie highlight for me because it feels so unexpected. Toshio is such a smug little twat and watching him realize he’s not even in the same spectral ballpark as the girl from the well is satisfying to watch.
and Suzuka (Tina Tamashiro) watch by helplessly.
It also gives Kayako a genuine motivation to get upset and fight – which begs the question. Why was this not the primary method to get the two supernatural behemoths to fight one another? Given the knowledge the psychics seem to possess, it seems reasonable to assume they’d know the relationship between Kayako and her son. It’s not a big issue in the grander scheme of the movie, but like a lot of the elements, feels like something that could have been capitalized on.
6. I love the appearance of Sadakayako. The way the movie ends on the updated cursed video tape showcasing the new movements of the entity is fanservice done right (where was this the rest of the movie). If the way the entities were fused together wasn’t done as a huge, disgusting CGI mess that’s incomprehensible in most ways, I might have been more okay with the ending scene. However, the fusion process is an eyesore to watch, and outside of the revelation of Tamao’s true sight which shows the power of the monstrosity, there’s very little to visually demonstrate the terror of our new ghostly creature.