My Wife and I Played a Game of Screen Drafts to Determine the Best Ring and Grudge Films.

A normal episode of the Screen Drafts is played with two people. It is a 7 film draft. Each Player gets a veto. And order is determined by trivia (related to the topic of film being discussed, a long ago pod episode was on Tobe Hopper). The winner of trivia can chose if they want more picks (7,6,4 and 2) or the number one pick (5, 3, and 1). The films being chosen are usually theatrical films but if both parties agree, a rule called "the mooch rule" can allow for television films to be played. Screen Drafts also has mega episodes and mini mega where far more than seven picks are drafted. and more than two people play.

In November, my wife V was kind enough to play a Three Stooges feature film drafts with me. I told her she could pick the next topic, and since we both love international horror, she opted for the Ringu and Ju-On films, of course we watched the American remakes and sequels as well, even the direct to video Grudge III.

I won the trivia; don't ask me how because we played this particular game in December and my memory is a bit fuzzy. Luckily I wrote down the placements. Having won the trivia I opted for the most pics: (7,6,4 & 2).

7. Ju-on 2 (2000)

I generally liked the Ju-on and American Grudge films a bit more than I liked the Ringu and Ring films. Ju-on 2 is very good, but I picked it for seventh because I found that despite some brilliant imagery (the opening car sequence for one), the plot never came together. V disagreed. She had this as her number one. But she was afraid what I would rank higher so she did not use a veto. She regretted that decision later on.

6. The Ring Two (2005)

I guess sometimes I like to play something that deserves a bit higher first to throw things off balance. Looking back, Ju-on 2 probably deserved a 4 spot. I really threw things off balance by picking the Ring Two. I really liked the weird CG deer. I really liked the bath sequence. I thought Ryan Merriman was MUCH better in this than he was in part one; Sissy Spacek shows up. The opening is tight. V had this one nowhere near her top seven, but she kept her veto. She will use it later.

5. The Grudge (2020)

V first tried to play Ringu 0 but was vetoed by me. That was my number 2 film. She then played my number one film. Frankie Faison and Lin Shaye are so good here. Jackie Weaver has a tense sequence. My wife really appreciated John Cho in this. The Grudge 2020 has great characters played by great actors. It has a few good death sequences and it is unrelenting in its darkness.

4. Ringu Spiral (1998)

This was a weird swing. My wife and I were both happy with my pick at four. It had imagination for days even if it didn't all land.

3. Ringu 0 (2000)

V picked this to keep it from the number 2 spot. We both sympathized with Sadako so even though this prequel has no real scares we liked it on the list.

2. Rings (2017)

I tried to play Sadako vs Kayako, an epic straight to vod cheapie where the evil girl from one franchise fights the evil girl from the other franchise. I really liked the professor character and how he came to his end in that one. But V found the whole thing silly and finally used her veto. Then I remembered how much I liked the morally dubious professor in Rings (played by Johnny Galecki) and how he came to his end. I went with Rings. My wife was not happy. But that left us with a good number one. We loved the character of Toshi in Ju-on and thought the scariest sequences of all were in that film, so even if we got very little right in this draft. We were both fine with number one.

1. Ju-on (2002)