Movie Review The Grudge 2

The Grudge 2 (2006)

Directed by Takashi Shimizu

Written by Stephen Susco

Starring Arielle Kebbel, Jennifer Beats, Amber Tamblyn, Takako Fuji, Sarah Michelle Geller

Release Date October 13th, 2006

Published October 13th, 2006

Some say that Ju-On, Takashi Shimizu's 2001 horror flick is a Japanese horror classic. I've seen Ju-on and I was not that impressed. I was further unimpressed when Shimizu adapted his film for American audiences in 2004 and called it The Grudge. I missed Ju-On 2, sad for me, however I did see The Grudge 2. If the Ju-On sequel is anything like its American twin I'm sure I would have been just as unimpressed.

Sarah Michele Gellar briefly returns to the role of Karen in Grudge 2. If you recall, Karen was an American student attending school in Tokyo when she was cursed by entering a house where a brutal murder took place. Now Karen is in a mental institution because no one believes that the murder victim, now a ghost, is after her.

In Grudge 2 Karen's sister Aubrey (Amber Tamblyn) arrives to take Karen home but unfortunately she arrives just in time to witness Karen's seeming suicide. (If you are calling this a spoiler you haven't seen the film's trailer which features Karen's death). Of course, Karen's death was no suicide; something Aubrey finds out from a journalist named Eason (Edison Chen). Eason has been following the story of the murderous house and the deaths of the people associated with it and soon he has drawn Aubrey into the ghostly danger.

Meanwhile in another movie, I mean subplot, three teenagers arrive at the Grudge house on a dare and soon find themselves cursed by the house and followed by the deathly pale ghost of a dead woman and her dead son. While two of the teenagers disappear another takes the Grudge ghosts home to America with her where they begin to infect the inhabitants of a stately Chicago apartment building.

The Grudge 2 is what I like to call a 'BOO' movie. Essentially the film plods along with dull expository dialogue, then the eerie soundtrack kicks up, and the bad guy turns to the camera and says 'BOO'. Then more dull dialogue and another 'BOO'.

Director Takashi Shimizu does not know how to craft a creepy atmosphere. His use of gray offset at times by bright colors is interesting. Unfortunately, the atmosphere is the only interesting thing about The Grudge 2. The story of the movie is so convoluted and ludicrous that figuring out the plot is a lesson in futility. What is The Grudge? Is the creepy house called The Grudge? Does the house have a grudge against the people that walk inside it? Does the ghost have a grudge against the living?

I don't need the answers to all of these questions but some recognition of the confusion caused by this odd title is something it would not have killed the filmmakers to provide.

The PG-13 rating of The Grudge 2 takes most of the fun out of the scares. Blood and guts aren't absolutely necessary for a great horror film but the best of the genre certainly make good use of them. The Grudge and now Grudge 2 are pretty well bloodless and rely almost entirely on atmosphere, creepy music and 'boo' moments when something leaps out of the dark, perfectly timed to a screech in a music track.

My main point is this, if your film is so obviously devoid of scares then, at the very least you could spill a little blood, display a little carnage, show a little skin. This is the genre that toys with the senses, titillating in one moment, repulsing in the next. It's one of the things we go to a horror movie for, that push and pull of emotions, the manipulation of the fear response and the gag reflex. Without those elements a movie like The Grudge 2 is just dull.

BOO! can be scary when you aren't expecting it. When you buy a ticket for a horror movie however, you are expecting BOO!. Thus, a good horror movie needs more than BOO!. The Grudge 2 augments the BOO! with a creepy atmosphere but nothing more. That may frighten a two year old but not many two year old's will be attending The Grudge 2.

Movie Review Ju-On The Grudge

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.