Dead by Daylight Sadako Rising: ‘Ringu’ movie producer on bringing Sadako to a new audience

With Dead by Daylight’s Chapter 23, Sadako Rising, shining a spotlight on the iconic movie franchise of Ringu, we sat down with Kadokawa producer Reiko Imayasu to discuss bringing the Survivor, Killer, and films themselves to a brand new audience.

Dead by Daylight’s roster of fan-favorite horror movie icons continues to grow, with Sadako turning the typical slasher style of the game on its head as a Killer with a deeper focus on psychological horror.

As new Survivor, Yoichi, and his story is continued years from when we last saw him in the movies, this crossover makes for a perfect chance to give new and unfamiliar Ringu audiences all-new game lore to sink their teeth into.

Sadako’s 24-year long curse

Reiko Imayasu, who’s no stranger to Dead by Daylight, as it includes some of her favorite horror characters (particularly Ash J. Williams and The Ghost Face), is a producer at Kadokawa, the rights-holders to the Ringu movie. It’s been a long time since we last saw an installment of Ringu, with both the story and characters themselves having undoubtedly grown to become one of horror’s most iconic franchises.

“It’s been 24 years since the original film adaptation Ringu was released. Sadako, with her iconic long black hair and white dress, has been loved by many people over the years through films, TVs, games, and merchandise,” Imayasu said.

“The series is unique in that it has flexibly changed with the times and the media. It gives the opportunity to compare it to the original and hopefully will give a chance to pick up the novel and movie again.”

Of course, one of the most interesting things about this new Chapter of DBD is the story of the new Survivor, Yoichi, who long-term fans will remember was just a child in the movies. This is especially true due to the fact that his story as an adult is brand new, tying the two mediums together in an incredibly fresh and interesting way.

“When the Dead by Daylight team first proposed the idea, I immediately said, ‘that is so interesting!’ The scene where Yoichi watches the cursed video alone in the middle of the night and his mother finds it is one of the scariest and most symbolic scenes in the film.”

“The story of the boy is now being told for the first time in 24 years through Dead by Daylight [and] makes me feel that this is somewhat destined to be.”

Respecting Sadako’s character

The process of coming up with this new Chapter is undoubtedly something that both teams are incredibly passionate about, from the Ringu rights-holders wanting Behaviour Interactive to portray Sadako in an accurate, respectful way.

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“I had been thinking about having Sadako in Dead by Daylight for a long time. We made a Proposal, [and] soon after, Behaviour’s Head of Partnerships, Mathieu Côté, came back to us very positively and we started discussing.”

“I was confident that they would take on a new challenge with the theme of Sadako. In fact, I think it opened up a whole new world of appeal for the series. They were very sincere about finding ways to execute the ‘hooking’ effect without using Sadako’s own hands.”

For Reiko, Sadako always seemed like a perfect fit to the Dead by Daylight Killer roster, adding: “The presence of a virus that curses an unspecified number of people (you never know who might be caught up in it) in Ringu is akin to the psychological horror of Dead by Daylight.”

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As such, players will be able to steps into the shoes (or in this case, feet) as Sadako, utilizing televisions to teleport throughout a Trial to creep out and curse Survivors with a ‘Condemned’ state, while using her psychic powers to maim and hook her foes, all while never laying a finger on them herself.

Dead by Daylight: Sadako Rising is out on March 8, 2022.

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