THE GRUDGE (2004)
You know those movies you watched as a kid
that scared the absolute living crap out of you, that you watch years later and
go “nah, that’s shit” (as my sister said upon the ending credits of The
Grudge)? This is one of those films. Not to say it’s completely terrible, there
are a few scares to be had, but it certainly wont give me any nightmares
tonight as it once did.
This is actually an American remake of a
2002 Japanese film, ‘Ju-on’, which I have seen but don’t recollect very much
of, with the same director taking the helm (Takashi Shimizu). We follow Karen,
an American nurse who has recently moved to Tokyo. She takes care of an
elderly women who’s usual carer (Yoko) has disappeared(well, a bit of her was
in the basement…). She witnesses the death of the elderly women at the hands of
supernatural forces-which no one believes- and is tormented by these beings
after she has left the house. Turns out the old
women’s family has also died of unknown causes due to living in the same house,
and Karen soon finds out that something very wrong has happened in the past
within its walls. She needs to rid of these ‘ghosts’ before she meets the same
fate, and a local investigator helps her to do so. Think of it like ‘The Ring’,
but with a house instead of a video-tape, and that’s pretty much it.
 |
| ...and this was BEFORE he was a ghost. Yikes. |
The score is pretty good, with a few creepy
notes assisting a pretty un-scary movie to be a little more eerie. An odd and
slightly distressing first scene does get your attention, even though things
are not adequately explained by the films end for my liking. A good attempt is
made to show how bewildered the American characters feel in their move to
Tokyo, although I could have done with a few more of these scenes as they work
quite well. Gellar does a good job as Karen, particularly when she is scared or
crying. Which is most of the time. There a few scenes that come off as scary,
but they are still tainted by scares that are more funny that frightening. One
of these scenes takes place in an empty office block building, with Susan
(KaDee Strickland) being terrorised by Kayako (aka, ghost girl). This is one of
those scenes that gave me nightmares years ago, with it still creeping me out
today. It’s a brief scene but a good one; especially the security footage that
gives the movie a tiny touch of a ‘found-footage’ element. Another of these
scenes features a jaw-less Yoko that is probably the most affective scene in
the whole movie, as is a bloodied Kayako making her way down the stairs body-bag
style with a few joint problems. The main issue with the scares is
inconsistency, with there being one good fright for every four that fall flat.
 |
| ALL I WANT IS SOME DAMN CATNIP BITCH. AND MORE EYELINER. THAT WOULD BE GOOD. There are those moments when you think “bitch, why the fuck are you going in there?” that end in the person getting killed (accompanied by loud music and a blank screen, which gets old very quickly). Most of the horror elements don’t succeed, and some come off as more than a little funny, which is not a good thing in a horror movie at all- I found myself chuckling whenever Toshio popped up and meowed like a pissed off cat. Is that meant to be scary? Some scenes that should have been scary are ruined due to unconvincing computer graphics used to great a freaky-fied Kayako. Pictures with a photo-bombing pre-ghost Kayako also come off quite funny instead of being creepy like they where intended (which made up one of the few good spoofs in scary movie 4, I might add). Jason Behr does an average but not terrible job as Karen’s boyfriend Doug, not that he is given much time to do anything with the character. The two ghosts are shown FAR too much, and are only scary when they are no more than a blur or a fleeting glimpse; Too many lingering shots of them greatly detracts their fright value. By the end of the movie they come off as a pair of people from a Head and Shoulders commercial, who have way too much foundation on and are in desperate need of a throat lozenge. The film seems to end abruptly, and its never clear why Toshio and Kayako became ghosts in the first place. |
Karen (Sarah Michel Gellar) trying to save her boyfriend Doug (Jason Behr) from Kayako.
Now that I’ve watched the remake, I plan on watching the original Japanese version to see how similar they are and, more importantly, if the original can scare the pants off of me. Weather I should blame horror movie de-sensitisation, or simple maturity, is unclear, but The Grudge simply isn’t as scary as it needs to be. It does provide some unintended laughs, with the two sequels (yes there was a third that went straight to DVD) ramping these up to hilarious levels and striking out the scares almost completely. Now, I have to go downstairs…in the dark…all right maybe it scared me a LITTLE!
And to re-iterate, “nah, that’s shit”-
Alicia.
2/5
12+ for moderate horror themes, supernatural themes and violent/bloody images, and very brief nudity
The Grudge trailer:
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