The Grudge

Cast: Sarah Michelle Geller, Jason Behr, William Mapother, Bill Pullman and Ted Raimi

Director: Takashi Shimizu

Release Date: 2004

Running Time: 1hr 31 minutes

Genre: Horror

Rating: PG-13

Synopsis:

Karen is an American nurse, working and living in Japan when she is suddenly exposed to a supernatural curse, a curse that locks the person in a powerful rage before moving onto their next victim! 

Based on the original Japanese movie "Ju-on: The Grudge", also directed by Takashi Shimizu. I'm not entirely sure why he felt the need to remake one of his own movies, because the original is most likely fantastic! It's possible the original movie made much more sense too? Matthew (Mapother) his wife Emma (Grace Zebriskie) and their mother move to Tokyo for a new life. However their new home is haunted by a supernatural entity that takes the live of others. It doesn't make a lot of sense, having a movie set in Tokyo and choosing to use American actors for the main cast. It's almost as bad as casting Scarlett Johanson as Major in Rupert Sanders "Ghost in the Shell", it's not exactly original is it? I feel like it takes away the premise of the original story.

Sarah Michelle Geller plays Karen Davis a exchange student working and living in Tokyo, this is where it starts to get a little bit confusing. Karen Davis is sent to the house to look after a woman, however when she gets there, something isn't quite right. Karen finds a young boy locked in a cupboard with a cat, yes a cat! Is the cat the supernatural entity? I don't think so. Is it the young boy? I seriously don't know. It's never clearly explained. The storyline is very messy and for the majority of the film doesn't make a great deal of sense. Takashi Shimizu may as well had his actors dress in white sheets and jump out on another, it probably would have been more entertaining!

Sarah Michelle Geller is the only good actress and even then she fails to bring any characterisation to her role. She's a nurse? You could have fooled me. One minute she's an exchange student, then next she's a working nurse? Bill Pullman has absolutely no screen time and when he does make an appearance it's short but sweet and essentially doesn't make any sense at all. The movie desperatly tries to show flashbacks in order to explain what's happened and even that is enough to confuse it's audience. The storyline is really messy and the acting is very poor. It's not laughable, but it's certainly not scary either.

Unfortunately I wasn't overly impressed with the cinematography or the lighting used in the film. I don't really feel like the set design worked well with the storyline. There isn't anything remotely creepy or scary about the house used in the film even though its one of the most important things in the film. The lighting is a little bit too dark at times, it doesn't add to the tone of the film at all. There's no atmosphere surrounding the film. No suspense. If Shimizu had chosen to use a lot more suspense the lighting would have worked perfectly. As I've mentioned previously I do tend to find most horror movies an embarrassing mess. I'm more baffled that probably a very talented Japanese Director felt the need to remake one of his own films.

I'm generally very dissapointed, I never expect two films to be the same, however I thought if I enjoyed Gore Virbinski's "The Ring" then chances are I would enjoy this. I found the storyline very boring, there wern't any surprises and there wasn't that wonderful sensation of fear and suspense that you're supposed to get from a horror movie. It wasn't rubbish, it just didn't appeal to me personally.

2/5 stars