10 Horror Movie Backstories That Get Worse The More You Think About It
6. Sadako Yamamura - Ringu (1998)
When journalist Reiko (Nanako Matsushima) stumbles upon a cursed video tape that kills whoever watches it after seven days, she finds herself in a race against time to uncover the ominous mysteries surrounding the tape before the curse claims the life of her and her young son.
Through the ensuing investigation, Reiko and her ex-husband (Hiroyuki Sanada) learn the tragic story behind the tape and the young girl who appears on it.
Her name is Sadako Yamamura, who inherited psychic abilities from her mother Shizuko. When one Dr Ikuma heard of Shizuko’s abilities, he travelled to Ōshima to study her powers and the pair fell in love.
During a demonstration of her mother’s abilities, though, Sadako would use her own to kill a journalist who denounced it as fake. As a result of the subsequent slander and controversy, Shizuko would take her own life while Ikuma lost his job. It was at this point when Sadako created the video tape by using her psychic powers to channel her anger onto it. When Ikuma discovers what she made, he threw her down a well and left her for dead.
Sadako is a manifestation of pure rage, which is as fascinating as it is frightening.