‘The Ring vs. The Grudge’ Trailer Is Terrifying, Presumably

Freddy Vs. Jason. Godzilla Vs. Mothra. Alien Vs. Predator. To this list of big-name crossover projects, we may now add The Ring Vs. The Grudge. It’s pretty much exactly what it sounds like — the creepy, wet-haired girl from The Ring will do battle with the creepy, bowl-cut-haired boy from The Grudge.

Today, the first trailer for this intertextual horror flick surfaced on the Internet for Japanese audiences, and as such, without subtitles. But we English-speakers can access it anyway and use context clues to determine what exactly is going on as best we can.

It‘s a good old-fashioned early-‘00s J-horror throwdown, though one bit does give me pause. It’s not as if the aforementioned characters are named The Ring and The Grudge in the films from which they originated, which suggests the film’s American title should more accurately be Japanese-release title Sadako Vs. Kayako. Or, for branding’s sake, we may stick with the original title, but then the tradeoff is that we’ve all got to refer to Freddy Vs. Jason as A Nightmare on Elm Street Vs. Friday the 13th. Take your pick.

We can safely assume that some Japanese folks are afraid, and have gotten themselves into a situation fraught with occult danger. Houses shall be haunted, staircases will be ominous sites of grisly murder, and spirit children will rain bloody havoc down on new homeowners. Beyond that, the plot’s not easy to determine for a mono-linguist. If any of our Japanese-fluent readers have a few spare minutes this morning, feel free to post some translations in the comments, but for now, we can only take our best guess at what’s going on here. One thing, however, is certain: it looks pretty dang scary.