20 "WTF Did I Just Watch" Horror Sequels

Time to discuss an obscure one. 1998's J-Horror classic Ring was filmed at the same time as a second movie called Spiral, which had several shared cast members but was done by a different writer and director. It would appear that there was little consultation between the two productions during filming, as Spiral is one of the most misjudged horror sequels you'll ever see. Alongside being an incomprehensible affair, it's completely divorced from its predecessor.

While Ring focused on supernatural horror and suspense, Spiral sticks closer to the source novel and indulges in lots of strange psychic gobbledegook that's really hard to understand, while any actual horror is largely jettisoned. 

Sadako, the terrifying ghost from the original movie, is now a sexualized femme fatale antiheroine, the cursed tape is hardly in it, the original's secondary lead Ryuji is retconned so that he was helping Sadako instead of trying to stop her (as if that makes any sense!), and most of the original's other characters are unceremoniously killed off. 

As a bewilderingly misjudged sequel made in such a ridiculous way that it makes many modern Hollywood productions look sensible, this is a fascinating film to discuss, but it is an irritating and crushingly dull one to watch. Unsurprisingly, this was a bomb upon release, so much so that a new Ring 2 (which ignored this one entirely) was made with Ring director Hideo Nakata, and that one was an improvement on Spiral.