2.5/5 stars In 1998, Japanese director Hideo Nakata created Ring , one of the most celebrated Asian horror movies of all time. An adaptation of Koji Suzuki’s chilling bestseller, Ring became a flagship for the Asia Extreme movement that swept the world, and a seminal example of J-horror cinema. More than two decades on, Nakata returns to the well from which his lank-haired antagonist first emerged, hoping Sadako will repeat the terrifying success of the original. Updating the story of a cursed VHS tape, which kills anyone who watches it after seven days, the new film taps into the popularity of supernatural online reality shows. Struggling YouTuber “Fantastic Kazuma” (Hiroya Shimizu) visits a supposedly haunted apartment, in the hope that his live-streamed antics will go viral, only to go missing after something interrupts his broadcast. Meanwhile Kazuma’s sister, Dr Mayu Akikawa (Elaiza Ikeda), is caring for the burned-out flat’s former resident, a nameless young girl (Himeka Himejima) who has been suffering from amnesia since losing her mother in the blaze. Rumour has it that the latter (Rie Tomosaka) was a psychic, and believed her daughter to be the reincarnation of the murderous demon known as Sadako. The Ring franchise has always focused on wronged and damaged women, persecuted and ostracised by society, who get their revenge through violent supernatural means. Only by banding together and forming a new surrogate family can their demons be laid to rest and our safety restored. In Sadako , Mayu carries with her a troubled past, and is repeatedly criticised by her superiors for becoming too emotionally attached to her patients. Her latest young charge was imprisoned by her own mother, who almost succeeded in burning her to death. Inevitably they are drawn to one another, but the spectre of Sadako lures them both away from the city and towards the remote Oshima Island, where her own terrible fate unfolded. None of the many sequels, remakes and spin-offs to Ring have been able to repeat its success. Similarly, Nakata has rarely been able to recreate its deeply upsetting atmosphere, which clawed its way under your skin without resorting to cheap jump scares. Sadako is a noble effort to recapture its creeping sense of threat while also re-engaging with the more mystical elements of the character’s origins. The balance between old world and new media is awkward and only intermittently successful, but nevertheless drags this lurching, wayward franchise back in the right direction. Want more articles like this? Follow SCMP Film on Facebook