Dead by Daylight has brought a variety of iconic horror monsters, murderers, and survivors to life through its asymmetrical multiplayer gameplay. However, there's one horror movie icon whose recent addition to the series may come as a surprise: Sadako Yamamura from the Ringu franchise. Unlike most of the other killers that have appeared in Dead by Daylight's roster, Sadako isn't much of a physical threat. The horror she represents is more psychological--and also far harder to escape. Survivors may be able to temporarily outrun or outwit hulking slasher villains like Michael Myers or Leatherface, but Sadako's threat is more insidious.
If Behaviour Interactive wants to take full advantage of Sadako's unique form of fear, it'll have to take her origins, abilities, and ultimate fate into account. While western fans may be familiar with the striking imagery of a stringy-haired ghost girl crawling out of a well, this is only the tip of the iceberg. The version of Sadako that will be appearing as a killer in Dead by Daylight seems to be taken from the Ringu movies as opposed to the western remakes, which were known as The Ring and changed Sadako's name to Samara. However, the Ringu movies were based on a series of novels of the same name that took Sadako's terrifying powers to new heights. Spoilers for Ringu are ahead.
Who is the Girl in the Well?
Once upon a time, Sadako Yamamura was a teenage girl with psychic powers and a troubled home life. Her mother, Shizuko Yamamura, also had psychic abilities that caused severe headaches. After a botched attempt to publicly demonstrate Shizuko's powers brought down the wrath of the media on mother and daughter, Shizuko committed suicide, leaving Sadako alone. Sadako was devastated and still being harassed by those around her as the daughter of a fraud, and things only got worse for her after she was thrown down a well and apparently died. However, as the 1998 cult classic Ringu film shows, Sadako wasn't content to go quietly.
The Ringu films chronicle Sadako's curse, which is transmitted by a literally viral video that will kill anyone who watches it unless they show it to someone else before the curse claims them. As the week progresses, Sadako is shown gradually crawling out of the well and getting closer and closer to her potential victims. This culminates in Sadako taking physical form, crawling out of the TV screen, and killing the viewer. However, Sadako's actual physical body remains at the bottom of the well where she was drowned, meaning that the ghostly version of her that appears is just a projection of her psychic abilities.
An Unstoppable Curse
The single biggest barrier to implementing Sadako into Dead by Daylight is that she's functionally unstoppable. All killers found in Dead by Daylight can shrug off harm from survivors, of course, but Sadako's nature as a curse means that anyone who goes against her is living on borrowed time. The novels even allowed for Sadako to reanimate and clone herself through the bodies of those who watched her tape, though that might be a bit much for Dead by Daylight to adapt. The only known way to escape Sadako's curse is to subject someone else to it, which could lead to mechanics that drive survivors to turn on each other in order to survive. However, Sadako's powers are closely linked to her video, so the physical tape should probably make an appearance as well.
Perhaps Sadako could be a killer who exists in two places at once. Her actual body would be in the well, which could appear at random places across the map, while her projection could travel across the map searching for victims. Perhaps the tapes could also be scattered across the map. When one of Dead by Daylight's survivors gets too close to a tape, it could activate, painting a target on the survivor's back unless the survivor manages to get the tape to another survivor before Sadako's projection reaches them. This could lead to a tense game of hot potato as well as a hidden trap in the form of the well, from which Sadako could emerge to capture unwary survivors who stumble across it. Players would have to balance moving Sadako's projection after survivors while also keeping an eye on the well.
Dead By Daylight is available on Mobile, PC, PS4, Stadia, Switch, and Xbox One.
