"Alright, everyone, good work today." Edward clapped his hands and spoke with satisfaction. At this point, The Grudge 3 was already close to wrapping up. The reason he said "close to" was because the film still wasn't fully completed.
Up to now, most of The Grudge 3's plot had already been filmed. The only truly troublesome part left was the final shot — the scene depicting Kayako's birth. But even from this scene alone, one could see something important: although Kayako had reincarnated, in essence she still possessed terrifying destructive power far beyond ordinary evil spirits.
Thus, the moment she was born, Kayako immediately slaughtered every medical staff member inside the operating room. Everyone except for the mother who had given birth to her was killed on the spot.
Yet, this reincarnated Kayako actually felt no particular affection toward the woman who gave birth to her. She merely regarded this "mother" as a vessel for her reincarnation. If the mother were to die too early, Kayako's future development wouldn't be ideal. So Kayako patiently waited until she possessed enough strength to support herself — and only then did she kill the mother who had given birth to her.
From this detail came an interesting deduction: although Kayako ultimately killed the ghost mother, her emotions were extremely complicated. The evidence was that Kayako did not use her supernatural powers to kill her; instead, she physically pushed the mother down to her death. It was painful, yes, but compared to being tortured to death by Kayako's true form, this method was practically merciful — one of the more "benevolent" deaths in the entire The Grudge series.
Of course, there were people who believed that this version of Kayako no longer possessed her former supernatural abilities as an evil spirit. But in Edward's opinion, that argument didn't make sense. After all, if Kayako truly had no supernatural powers left, she wouldn't have killed her birth mother. With the ghost mother alive, Kayako would have lived a far more comfortable life.
So, it made more sense to assume that the pitiful mother had always been trying to "redeem" Kayako. But influenced by overwhelming grudges, Kayako regarded the mother as nothing more than a reincarnation vessel, and at most she felt the same mild attachment humans felt toward their own pets.
The Grudge 3's filming had stalled precisely at this segment because the scene was unique and the special effects required were troublesome, delaying production. This time, however, Edward had no intention of waiting any longer. He planned to have Kayako herself personally perform in this final scene, and once that was done, the whole film could officially wrap.
"Boss." Zoroark hurried over, arms full of documents. Seeing that mountain of paperwork immediately gave Edward a headache, while Q lazily yawned, completely uninterested. Earlier, when Edward was filming, Q had watched happily, clearly enjoying himself.
"Let me take a look." Edward accepted the documents and glanced through them. Most of the pages were paperwork from Devon Corporation that required his personal handling. While a large corporation could still function without its president, there were always certain important documents only Edward could authorize — and he was well aware of this. Thus, he processed them seriously.
After dealing with a chunk of the paperwork, Edward came across several reports from Ghost Films. When he read them, his eyes carried a hint of amusement.
"Who submitted this proposal?" Holding the document, Edward looked half amused and half speechless. He truly did not expect that even before he began filming anything new, someone had already come up with something like this.
"Boss, this was submitted by a new employee. He said people online really want to see a movie where evil spirits fight evil spirits, and he thinks it has great potential." Zoroark glanced at it and explained. Hearing this, Edward understood immediately.
Yet he couldn't help but feel a subtle expression creep onto his face as he continued to stare at the proposal.
[Recommendation: Produce a film depicting a battle between Sadako and Kayako.]
That was the proposal's content, and reading it instantly reminded Edward of a rather unfortunate legacy left behind by the two once-great IPs, Sadako and Kayako — a legacy that had somewhat tarnished their reputations.
Sadako vs. Kayako — that was the name of the utterly baffling horror film. When Edward first heard about it, he had been extremely excited. After all, Sadako and Kayako were legendary female ghosts, icons etched into horror film history. Their methods were terrifyingly impressive, and they ushered in entire waves of horror mania in their time.
They were truly classics.
So, back then, Edward had looked forward to the movie with great anticipation. The official promotions were plentiful, and all sorts of quirky marketing tactics made him even more intrigued.
Although he had to resort to "special online resources" for obvious reasons, he still watched it as soon as he could. But as soon as he sat down to watch it, he felt like he was sitting on needles.
The plot itself wasn't even complicated.
It began with a university folklore class. A clueless professor lectured about supernatural legends while the heroines, Yuri and Natsumi dozed off. The professor expressed his wish to see Sadako's cursed tape with his own eyes if anyone ever found it.
Then the story split into two routes: the Sadako route and the Kayako route.
In Sadako's route, Ueno Natsumi bought a used VCR with her friend Yuri while preparing a wedding anniversary gift for her parents. Inside the VCR, they accidentally found an old, eerie tape. Natsumi didn't want to watch it, but Yuri insisted, then proceeded to play on her phone while it played — causing Natsumi alone to trigger the curse.
She received the mysterious phone call, hallucinations, and the prophecy of dying within days. Terrified, she and Yuri sought help from the shop owner, only to learn an employee who had watched the tape also died shortly after. Their fear grew.
Meanwhile, the Kayako route followed Takagi Suzuka, a high school girl who moved into the house opposite the Saeki residence. Edward thought this girl acted like an idiot, though he knew horror movies always needed idiots to push the plot forward — but this level of stupidity was excessive.
Suzuka noticed missing children cases and ignored warnings about the cursed house. She entered anyway and got entangled with Kayako and Toshio's vengeful spirits. More eerie events occurred — Kayako crawling down the stairs, Toshio appearing out of nowhere.
Meanwhile, in Sadako's storyline, Yuri and Natsumi sought help from professor Mori Shigeru — the same professor obsessed with Sadako. He brought them to a powerful exorcist.
The exorcist had some skill but didn't want to take the job at first. Eventually, tempted by fame, she agreed.
And then… failed miserably. Both she and her assistant were killed by Sadako. Yuri and Natsumi screamed while the professor, bizarrely, rushed forward excitedly to ask the dying exorcist whether she saw Sadako and what she looked like.
Under Sadako's control, the exorcist smashed her own head into the professor's face, flattening it like a pancake. Absolutely ridiculous.
Feeling guilty, Yuri tried to take the curse onto herself by watching the tape again, but it didn't work.
Then came an unusual exorcist: Tokiwa Kyozo. He interrupted the spiritual attack and claimed he would save them. But Natsumi broke down and attempted suicide. Sadako killed her first, and when Sadako moved toward Yuri, Tokiwa intervened.
Meanwhile, Suzuka's parents were killed by Kayako and Toshio, but she barely escaped thanks to Tokiwa.
Tokiwa proposed using "poison against poison": letting Sadako's and Kayako's curses collide. Yuri would enter Kayako's house to trigger that curse, while Suzuka already cursed by Kayako would watch Sadako's tape inside the house. With both women bearing both curses, Sadako and Kayako would fight over them.
If the evil spirits canceled each other out, great. If not, he would seal them inside an old dry well.
Yuri and Suzuka agreed. They watched the tape inside the cursed house. Everything seemed calm until the moment the tape ended.
Toshio attacked first, only to be dragged into the TV by Sadako's hair.
Sadako crawled out of the TV. Kayako descended from the second floor.
The two ghosts immediately began fighting. Sadako had the upper hand, destroying Kayako. But when Sadako turned toward Yuri and Suzuka, Tokiwa threw the tape toward the newly revived Kayako. Kayako crushed it. They clashed again.
Tokiwa declared sealing was the only option. They rushed outside. The blind girl who could sense evil spirits was also present.
Someone needed to act as bait — Yuri volunteered.
She stood at the edge of the well. Kayako and Sadako rushed at her.
She jumped into the well.
The two ghosts collided, merging into a massive abomination. In Yuri's point of view from below, countless tentacles hung from the creature.
Edward had burst out laughing.
The fusion's power snapped the ropes and sliced Tokiwa in half midair. Edward even wondered if Gojo Satoru's body scene took inspiration from this — the way he soared confidently before being cut clean through felt identical.
The abomination crawled into the well to devour Yuri. Suzuka tried to seal the lid.
But the supposedly unbreakable seal shattered instantly.
A monstrosity crawled out.
To the blind girl, it was an incomprehensibly terrifying creature.
Suzuka saw that it had Sadako's form but walked like Kayako.
Toshio appeared behind them.
Naturally, they all died.
The end-credit scene showed the cursed videotape again — but this time, Sadako approached using Kayako's crawling movement, implying the two spirits had fully merged into one entity… Sadayo.
The entire movie ended in absurd melodrama.
When Edward finished watching it back then, he found it completely non-scary — more like a comedy. He was so irritated, he couldn't help laughing in anger.
(End of chapter)