If you’re going to do a vs. movie, you must make sure the
opponents are evenly matched. King Kong
vs. Godzilla had two giant monsters facing off against each other. Freddy vs. Jason found two of the premier
slashers of their era going head to head.
Alien vs. Predator had two extraterrestrial beasties locking horns. For Sadako vs. Kayako, we have the little
ghost girl having a bad hair day from The Ring going up against the little
ghost girl having a bad hair day from The Grudge. This is about as evenly matched as it gets,
folks.
There’s even a little bit of Urban Legend here as the
heroines have a professor that teaches a class on urban legends. He offers his students cash money for proof
that the cursed video from The Ring exists.
If only Rebecca Gayheart was lurking around in a parka, it could’ve been
a triple-header.
Anyway, our two heroines find a VCR at a dirt mall that just
so happens to have the mythical tape in it.
Naturally, they watch it. In a
brilliant stroke, one of the girls is busy texting on her phone so she misses
the whole thing! Of course, her friend
is doomed to die in two days, so they ask an unconventional exorcist to help
them lift the curse. He suggests
performing the exorcism in the haunted house from The Grudge and letting the
two evil spirits duke it out.
Like both franchises, the pacing is awfully slow. The constant cutting back and forth between
The Ring and The Grudge’s storylines also takes a lot of the wind out of the
movie’s sails. I will say The Ring
scenes work better than The Grudge scenes, but there is one good part where the
Boy Who Meows Like a Cat from The Grudge attacks a couple of bullies. You’ve also got to wait a long time before
both curses fight each other in the final showdown and when it finally does happen,
it’s a bit of a letdown.
Despite these annoyances, this is still a lot better than
any of the previous films in both respective franchises, so that’s a small
victory at least. It doesn’t take itself
very seriously, which is a blessing. Both
franchises hinged on the audience’s belief that a little ghost girl having a
bad hair day was scary, which, it isn’t.
This one kind of senses the stupidity inherent in the premise(s) and
decides to have a little fun with it. I’m
not saying it completely works, but I’ll be damned… I ALMOST liked it.
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