10 Wildly Overpraised Movies
8. Sadako Vs Kayako
What The Critics Said: “Supremely silly yet undeniably fun.” (Variety)
From Freddy Vs Jason to Batman V Superman, most matchups look great on paper but fall apart once they reach the big screen. Sadako Vs Kayako, which unites the ghosts from Ringu and The Grudge, is another great concept that runs out of gas early on and never recovers.
Originally touted as an April Fools’ Day joke, the idea attracted so much attention that copyright holders Kadokawa went ahead and made the movie, but just like the films mentioned above, Sadako Vs Kayako never comes up with a convincing rationale for why these characters should be appearing together in the first place.
The movie tells two stories, one about a ghost who haunts people who watch a videotape and another about a haunted house, and just like in Freddy Vs Jason the justification used in bringing them together is using one to cancel the other out. The narrative was pretty strained in that movie and it's strained here, but while FVJ at least made good on its title, we never get to see much of Sadako and Kayako duking it out until right at the very end.