Ju-On The Grudge (2002)
Directed by Takashi Shimizu
Written by Takashi Shimizu
Starring Megumi Okina
Release Date October 18th, 2002
Published July 24th, 2004
Hollywood loves a good trend, so when Dreamworks invested and got a big return on the Japanese horror remake The Ring, it was not hard to guess that the flood gates were about to open. There are a few more Japanese imports about to get the American touch and one of them is Ju-On: The Grudge -- a haunted house horror movie with a unique story structure that may be it's biggest asset and least translatable element.
The Grudge centers on a home where an old woman is living with her son and his wife. The couple has not checked in with social workers who have been monitoring the old woman's care and so a social worker, Rika (Megumi Okina), is dispatched to the home to check up. What Rika finds is the old woman dying and a strange, gray-skinned boy named Toshio (Yuya Ozeki) locked in a closet. There is a strange presence in the house that eventually reveals itself and leaves Rika traumatized.
The film is broken into chapters ala Pulp Fiction, including title cards. Rika is the film’s only consistent character, popping up in different chapters at different times, before and after her encounter in the haunted house. After introducing Rika, the film goes back in time to show us the husband and wife leading up to their disappearance. The cops investigating their disappearance get a few scenes and another cop who investigated a brutal murder that may be the key to the film’s mystery
The film also veers away from the home to the couple's sister and another social worker who were followed to their homes by the strange specter haunting the couple's home. There is also the teenage daughter of one of the cops who once visited the haunted house with friends, intrigued by the house’s mystery; she left, but her friends stayed and disappeared.
Writer-director Takashi Shimizu does a terrific job of setting his tone. The film is very quiet and then very violent in quick strokes. The violence is quick yet surprisingly, almost disappointingly bloodless. The young boy Toshio is used to maximum creepiness as his gray pallor and large eyes are seen peering at characters from various unusual vantage points. Using a child as a villain is an effective way of lulling an audience into a sense of safety and then destroying our preconceived notions of child innocence. Toshio is not the only villain there is also a smoky black specter that is less effective, even at times a little cheesy.
Ju-On: The Grudge is actually the third film in the Ju-On series, the first two films were direct-to-video hits in Japan and the original has now spawned two sequels and an American adaptation. Each of the films (including the adaptation) has been written and directed by Shimizu, who has built a quite successful career off of creepy haunted house aesthetics. Like Hideo Nakata, the writer-director of Ringu, Shimizu is making Ju-On his career. This will not be easy. Where Ringu had an easily-accessible hook, Ju-On is slightly more esoteric and will likely look very different when translated to American audiences.
Ju-On: The Grudge evokes the creepy haunted house ideas of Amityville, with a touch of The Exorcist and a tone and structure that is unique for a horror film. I’m not entirely sold on Ju-On: The Grudge. As an import desperately crying out for an adaptation, it’s creepier than it is scary and far more atmospheric than gory, thus it lacks much of what American audiences crave from a horror film.
