Harefooted Halloween: Sadako 2 3D

What I Liked: The serious tone is back and mostly welcomed.  This little four year old girl has powers to kill and it’s actually sorta convincing.  She has this depressed evil little face that makes you feel a little off so you know it’s not safe around her.  Good job kid.

The story moves along well with people dying fairly often.  It’s interesting that mood doesn’t seem to be the driving force here like in all the other Ring movies (except Sadako 3D).  This one has the dark atmosphere but is structured more like a monster film with folks biting it every so many minutes and there not being too much focus until the end when the protagonist finally wakes up and tries to figure out a way to stop this thing.  I liked that because it was different for the series.

What I Didn’t Like: While the plot does chug along nicely there’s a dream sequence part in the middle that goes on a little too long for my taste.  They pull the ol’ dream within a dream gag that I have no respect for.  Here’s my takeaway, whenever you see this it’s the filmmakers being indecisive about which dream they liked better and just threw them both in for the hell of it.  Make a decision guys.

The ending is incredibly clunky and even kinda confusing.  Not that the picture was really great or anything up until that point but they made matters worse by coming up with a very messy conclusion.   

Overall Impression: After the over the top almost grindhouse-esque concept of Sadako 3D the filmmakers decided to tone it way down.  They went serious on this and that was a semi-pleasant surprise.  I was kinda into the direction its predecessor went and was looking forward to another installment of that vision.  But to get dark and moody again brought things back to where these movies probably belong.

What’s really strange though is that the concept for this one is so far removed from the other Ring films and universe that it doesn’t fit.  I had theorized that Sadako 3D was another script before being turned into a Ring picture.  This one definitely feels like that too.  In fact even more so.  There’s no cursed video (VHS or YouTube version) and basically no Sadako (she has maybe ten seconds of screen time).  Instead someone’s electronic device goes haywire and then they kill themselves.  No curse either.  The ones who die are whoever the little girl chooses.

It’s kinda bogus to call this a Ring movie.  But otherwise it’s pretty alright.