There can be no denying that these franchises would be nothing without their Japanese predecessors. The creep-factor in these films are dialed to ten.
It is only a question of which films scares you the most. The Grudge used its nonlinear structure to present a sense of foreboding. Before the audience saw what happened to the new occupants of the house, you saw the aftermath.
An abandoned old woman whose caretakers were gone. The Grudge weaved a tale that you are never safe. Once you found out what happened to the tenants in the Saeki house, it was all the more terrifying that you were powerless to stop it. Released in a culture obsessed with media, The Ring was a perfect answer.
Not only did it capitalize on the fear that the movie you were watching would kill you, but it also did so in a movie itself. The audience watched characters drop off one by one all the while intercutting frames of the ring of the well. The Ring suggested that you were watching the film yourself and like the characters, powerless to stop the inevitable. Death at the hands of a vengeful child. Unlike many supernatural horror films, the curse that haunted the Saeki house was not a unique situation.
This specific curse was created when violence came out of an intense amount of rage or sorrow. While this created corporeal ghosts that never leave you alone, the reason this violence happened was unfortunately commonplace.
Many families experience domestic abuse. The Grudge used a common theme. Any Evil Dead fan would immediately show at least a passing interest after hearing this. Secondly, the director, Takashi Shimizu, made the Japanese film of the same name that The Grudge is based on.
For whatever reason, Japanese horror seems to be well-respected amongst American fans. Unfortunately, in addition to not mustering any quality scares, this movie lacks even a coherent plot. That is until the obligatory final 20 minutes of worthless nonsensical exposition. Karen Black Sarah Michelle Gellar is an exchange student in Japan who volunteers at an agency that helps shut-ins. Emma Grace Zabriskie is the elderly woman she cares for. Anytime anyone goes near the place and that includes the Japanese police something dreadful happens to them.
The vengeful spirit kills indiscriminately and it has taken on a life of its own and is called, The Grudge. Gellar sure could have used the martial arts skills from Buffy The Vampire Slayer though I'm not sure how much they would have helped against the undead. The Japanese version apparently has gotten considerable acclaim, but for me this is just another slasher flick. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote. However, I can not stand when a remake is basically nothing more than a scene for scene remake of the previous film.
I watched Ju-On: The Grudge about a week earlier and found it to be a flawed, if creepy little horror film. This American remake just got on my last nerves because nothing new is really tried.
It's rather shocking that the man who directed the Japanese version also directed this. It would seem that he would look at his original and try to fix the things that didn't work it in but instead he pretty much just repeated them here or made things worse. Unlike the original, this one here has no atmosphere, no creepy moments and the only real benefit is Sarah Michelle Gellar is hotter than the women in the original.
Confused yet? You will be — as far as I make it, no less than six films have been built around this premise so far, with a seventh and possibly eighth, knowing Hollywood on the way.
Really, if you've seen the original Japanese version, you have absolutely no reason to see this movie. It's inferior in every respect, and the decision to use sub-par CGI effects in some scenes makes them laughable rather than frightening — the appearance of the ghost hovering above the bed just looks atrocious. The good news is that Sam Raimi produces under his Ghost House banner, which means things are a little less insipid than they would be otherwise. I liked the fact that the focus was on the scares throughout — no padding or time-wasting here, just straight into the fear factor.
The inclusion of scenes from JU-ON which I hadn't seen kept me on my toes, although everything else was pretty much reproduced from the original, shot-to-shot. This may be because the Japanese director came across, but even so I'd have liked a little more loosening of the apron strings, a little greater variety. Maybe that's just me. The cast isn't great. Japanese actors have a great way of portraying realistic subtlety, so when you see Sarah Michelle Gellar sweating and acting with wide-eyed fear, it doesn't really have the same impact.
She's always just acting. Bill Pullman was pretty good though, while the inclusion of Japanese actors from the original, playing the cursed family, is a nice touch. Being a Sam Raimi production, Ted Raimi inevitably shows up, here playing the head of a care agency, and it's great to see him in a larger supporting role than usual.
One thing I did like a LOT was that the film becomes more serious, and more scary, as it progresses. Scenes such as the 'jaw' scare are spot on, while the full-blooded climax doesn't disappoint — it may be that the film actually becomes scarier than the original at this point!
So, all in all, this isn't a great film, but it is a pretty good one — better still if you haven't caught the Japanese version. SnoopyStyle 5 August When someone dies in the grip of a powerful rage A curse is born. The curse gathers in that place of death.
Those who encounter it will be consumed by its fury. Peter Kirk Bill Pullman kills himself jumping off his apartment balcony in Japan. Yoko visits elderly Emma Grace Zabriskie living in a Tokyo house. She is attacked by a spirit. Karen takes over Yoko's job with Emma after she disappeared.
Karen finds little boy Toshio trapped in a taped up closet. The only interesting thing in this movie is Japan. Sadly, it doesn't even take full advantage of that since most of this takes place inside the house. The spirits aren't that creepy and not scary at all. The kills aren't gruesome. It's just very tame. There really isn't anything to this movie.
There is also a problem with all these tangentially connected characters. They have no emotional relationship with SMG's Karen. The disconnected nature really lowers the stakes of this movie. The spirit chasing KaDee Strickland in Japan is the most compelling sequence but again she has no real connection with Karen. In Tokyo, when the American student Karen Davis Sarah Michelle Gellar is called by a Japanese social support agency to replace her Japanese colleague Yoko Yoko Maki in the assistance of the American sick woman Emma Grace Zabriskie , she realizes that something supernatural lives in the huge house.
Inspector Nakagawa Ryo Ishibashi investigates a series of deaths of visitors of the subjected house, and based on a Japanese belief, he convinces himself that the place is cursed. I have not had the chance to see the original "Ju-on: The Grudge" yet, but this story is much related to Japanese culture.
The beginning of the film makes reference to a Japanese saying about rage, which is unknown in Western cultures. The non-linear screenplay works reasonably, but could be better and better.
It gives me the impression that something is missing to be a great movie. My vote is six. Jump scares that are good while watching but don't make a lasting impression bob the moo 6 June Whenever somebody dies in the grip of a terrible rage a curse is begun that consumes all that come into contact with it. At some point something has happened in an old house in the suburbs of Tokyo, although nobody would have guessed that this is what has happened to medical student Yoko, who has just gone missing.
Her replacement is American Karen Davis, who is sent out to cover for Yoko and look after the old woman who is bedridden and needs looking after. Very quickly though, Karen begins to notice that not all is as it should be. Japanese horror is certainly different and the focus on atmosphere and chills rather than jump shocks are two of the things that have made things like Ringu and Honogurai Mizuno Sokokara really creep me out and stick in my mind every bloody time I have to turn the lights out and walk across a dark room to the door.
However, with so many average films using the formula without adding anything and American version remaking the original in a shot-for-shot way that is like an expensive form of dubbing then you do have to wonder if perhaps it will soon be a victim of its own success. The film opens with a mystery and a good scare and really this is how it continues. Sadly the delivery took away from it; the flashbacks etc were reasonably easy to follow but it broke up the atmosphere and didn't allow a consistency that the actual plot could have had.
Without this consistent atmosphere the film becomes more about "jump" scares rather than a constant chill and fear; this still works and I did find bits of it frightening but not to the point where it will stay with me in the way that the films I mentioned before do.
Without a nice flow to the story, the characters are not as engaging as they could have been and I didn't feel the tragedy that is suggested by the script.
The actors therefore mostly exist within the film rather than give strong performances. The rest of the cast are mostly familiar American faces, which I suppose helps it sell to the American multiplex audience. They all do the job well enough but none of them really got me into their characters although, like Gellar, they did well enough to help sustain the scares. The direction is good and it does build up the tension leading up to "jump" scares but from what I've heard it is shot for shot a copy of the original so you have to wonder why he bothered other than the big pay cheque.
Overall this is a good film and it delivers enough scares to be worth seeing; however those who have come to enjoy the formula of Japanese horrors will perhaps see it as rather watered down and having more in common with the American "sudden jump" method.
The cast act scared but can't give us people although the director uses their fear well enough to satisfy those looking for a scare or two on a Saturday night. The same director is working on the remake, as did on the original Japanese movie.
The main reason for the truthfulness of the original, are the producers on hand here. Powered by JustWatch. Now playing. Convergence: Courage in a Crisis Matt Fagerholm. Titane Sheila O'Malley. Night Teeth Nick Allen. Halloween Kills Brian Tallerico.
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