10 Awesome Horror Movie Villains With One Stupid Weakness

6. Sadako Yamamura - The Ring Franchise

Leprechaun Shoes Warwick Davis
Basara Pictures

In the Ring franchise, the weakness of Sadako is one that's totally in the hands of her potential victims. As in, she can't hurt you unless you watch the infamous video that's at the core of the franchise.

If you're dumb enough to watch that old VHS tape, you deserve what you get. But by simply not watching that ominously creepy footage, that negates any chance of her targeting you with the promise of imminent death in just seven days. Well, or one, two, or 13 days depending on which entry in the franchise you're watching.

Granted, later films such as Sadako vs. Kayako and the 2017 Rings changed things up a little by having the Sadako - or Samara, in the case of Rings - tapes uploaded and spread on the internet, but even then, it again boils down to just not watching these videos. If you don't watch them, no trouble will come your way.

Essentially, anyone has the ability to render Sadako/Samara powerless, all by not letting curiosity get the better of you. And there's no real excuse for stumbling across this video by accident, for the wider Ring franchise - which nowadays consists of 14 movies and a couple of TV series - has it well established that this video is known in-universe for what it brings with it should you foolishly give the vid a watch.

In this post: 
Leprechaun
 
Posted On: 
Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.