Both within Japan and around the globe, there’s no dismissing the massive impact that the Ring films have had on the horror film landscape at large. Released in Japan under the title Sadako, the franchise has even gone on to make the titular antagonist one of the best-known ghosts of all time within its home country. So it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise when I say that we’re set to receive an all-new entry into the Sadako series of films this year, this time depicted in a social media-age world. Previewed in a short 20-second clip below, we get our first glimpse at director Hideo Nakata’s vision for the latest film:
Set to release in cinemas across Japan on May 24, 2019, the upcoming film is based on original author Koji Suzuki’s sixth novel in the Ring series, titled Tide. With the tagline “If you film it, you die. This is the curse begun by a YouTuber. This movie has no pardons.”, it’ll definitely be interesting to see if the film’s staff actually manage to pull off a creative integration of modern social media services into a horror film — something tried yet far too often failed at by other horror films. In addition to the announcement of the film, we also saw the launching of an official website which detailed a number of factors, including the return of the original 1998 film’s staff to handle the project.
If I’m being totally honest, I’m pretty excited about this film. It’s been years since I watched the original Ring film, something I didn’t actually do until my first trip to Japan, but I distinctly remember it being an absolute masterpiece. While we’ve seen a few flops from the franchise over the years in Sadako 3D and the likes, the fact that they’re enlisting Hideo Nakata for the project gives me a bit of hope. This won’t be the first time he’s tackled a modern-day story either, with his 2018 film Stolen Identity revolving around a stolen smartphone and the direct results of this happening. For those interested in checking out further information on the upcoming film, you’ll definitely want to check out the Sadako official website.