The Grudge

Exclusive Date Score:

9/10

Scary. In a word, scary. You'll enjoy the entire 91 minutes of this movie if your a fan of horror movies.

The Grudge (2004)

Barely a year passed between the release of Takashi Shimizu's creepy ghost story Ju-On: The Grudge and the production of this American remake, set in Tokyo and starring Sarah Michelle Gellar in her first post-Buffy horror film. About the only significant difference between the two films is the importing of a mostly-American cast (including Bill Pullman, Clea DuVall and Grace Zabriskie), but The Grudge was reconfigured (by screenwriter Stephen Susco) to allow Shimizu to refine and improve the spookiest highlights of his earlier version, which enjoyed previous incarnations as a short film and two made-for-Japanese-video features. Surprising box-office analysts with a $40 million opening weekend, The Grudge may disappoint hard-core horror fans because it lacks gore and graphic violence, but as a creepy tale about a very haunted house, it's guaranteed to send a few chills up your spine. --Jeff Shannon

The intense pace will keep you hanging on from scene to scene. If you're seen the original movie (Ju-on) you may appreciate this version more. I did.  - Robert Lee, aLoveLinksPlus.com reviewer

Ju-on (The Grudge)

Following in the footsteps of The Ring cycle, the Ju-On series of horror films has taken Japan by the throat. According to this movie, the title refers to a curse placed upon a house where violence occurred. Sure enough, we see a string of unhappy encounters in a seemingly ordinary home, where ghosts have settled in the aftermath of murder. Director Takashi Shimizu (who also directed the Hollywood remake, The Grudge) constructs the picture out of separate fragments, not told in chronological order; the haunted house is the main character, not any one of the unsuspecting human characters. Cult mavens might suggest that Shimizu uses devices and images that have already worked well in films by Hideo Nakata and Kiyoshi Kurosawa--the Japanese horror film does have its conventions. But none of that matters if you're watching this movie alone at home on a dark night. Click, click, click.... --Robert Horton

The original has better character development and involves the viewer more in the story.  - Robert Lee, aLoveLinksPlus.com reviewer

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