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| The Grudge This is the "American" remake of the Japanese film Ju-On: The Grudge that came out last year. Originally the first film and its sequel went direct-to-video in 2000 at Japan under the name Ju-On. Apparently it was somewhat of a video hit since they got original writer/director Takashi Shimizu to remake the two movies for a theatrical release and a bigger budget. The two films became a theatrical hit and soon got the interest of some people here in the U.S. namely Sam Raimi (Evil Dead trilogy, Spider-Man) who produced the film under his new Ghost House Pictures company. They didn't want an American take on the film (I.E. The Ring), so they got Takashi to remake his movie once again. The name "The Grudge" supposedly refers to spirits who died in the grip of a powerful rage, which then leaves their spirits to haunt the surroundings and curse anyone who dares come near. This is the case when a young exchange student (Sarah Gellar) takes a temp job caring for people to help gain a credit for college. She's sent to assist an old woman after the normal girl turns up missing. When she arrives at the home things seem out of place and strange noises are heard, which eventually leads the girl to believe the place is haunted (especially after seeing one of these spirits), and the ghosts will stop at nothing to kill all those who step foot in the home. I saw the original films a while back and thought they were interesting, but nothing to brag about. I especially dreaded the sequel since the first 40-or-so-minutes was nothing more than the last 40-or-so-minutes of the first movie. Anyway, it was obvious from the start that director Takashi Shimizu had talent and knew how to scare an audience, and that was proven when he made the hit Japanese remake. I enjoyed that version, but much like the first film, it was a little hard to follow at times and left me confused during certain scenes. More scares and story were added and the sequel wasn't just a rehash of the first. Now comes the U.S. remake -- this version really surprised me. I knew I'd enjoy the movie at least as much as the Japanese remake, but I actually ended up liking it more. What I liked most about this version was the simplified story. In normal cases that's not necessarily a good thing, but since we have to follow so many characters it makes things easier to understand; at least for me anyway. That's one of the main faults I had with the previous two films; I just had trouble keeping tracking of all the characters. Not a whole lot in terms of story was changed compared to the previous remake. Most of the scenes were tweaked and the ending was totally different. The scares remained pretty much the same, just with a bigger budget and slightly more added to them. If you've seen the previous films then you'll probably guess what'll happen in most of the scenes. They even used the same actors from the previous films to play the ghosts again in this one. The weird cat-sounds the kid makes and the odd gurgling-type sound the ghosts make remain in this version. I remember I was thinking "what the hell was that?" when I first heard it in the two original films. In the Japanese remake they upped it a bit since more ghost sequences were added, but in this version, believe-it-or-not, there wasn't a whole lot of that going on. Although I'm sure those who hadn't seen the previous films would think the amount in this movie was too much. I noticed the audience laughing at times to either cover up for being scared or just laughing because of the odd sounds. I personally don't think the average American movie-goer is ready for a Japanese movie such as this, especially if they hadn't seen many Japanese supernatural horror films. I know many would consider this a rip-off of The Ring, but the fact is the Japanese have been depicting their spirits in the same fashion in most of their movies for decades. It's just now that the U.S. is finally catching wind of it. Although I do hate how they marketed the movie to be like The Ring, especially the blatent ripoff of the poster (compare the above poster with Ringu). I do like the weird approach with the sounds, but I think after a while it does get "played-out" and that's one of the problems I had with this movie. Although they didn't use'em as much, they still used it more than they should've. Another problem I had with this was a slight plot-hole that occurs around the middle of the film, which I obviously can't get into. The movie is played in a present-past-present fashion, where a scene is shown in the present then the next scene will explore the past events of the character(s), which introduces them, and explain how they got to that point. That's how most of the movie is played, but towards the end it pretty much stays in the present. I wish there had been slightly more character development, like in the previous remake, but not so much to confuse the viewer. Director Takashi Shimizu succeeds in making this "American" version better than his previous editions. Although whether this version is scarier than the others is up for question, it is loaded with a lot of scares that seemingly never end. That's another thing I really enjoyed about this movie -- in most ghost-related movies we get some scares here and there, then get loaded with story and then a few more scares. In this movie we get a new scare seemingly every 10 minutes. Some scenes remained creepy, but I wouldn't go as far as saying any of them were scary. I think the audience laughing at the odd noises the ghosts made distracted them from being scared. Good thing? *shrugs* In the end I enjoyed this movie and I'm happy to finally see a remake done right. There are already talks from Producer Sam Raimi about a sequel. I guess it all boils down to the box office totals. I'm sure they'll get Takashi to direct once again, although whether it'll be a remake of the second film won't be known until official word is released. I guess we'll just have to wait and see! OVERALL |
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Its pretty 'jumpy' and often scares the viewers - plus it has a reasonably good storyline, unlike many other horror films
This makes the movie even better!
I give The Grudge 8.5/10