mockylock

I went to see this movie when it first came out over here..... It was exactly as I thought (and feared) it would be; Ju-On 1, 2 (and even small parts of the less successful-straight-to-video-prequels) were used to make this nice and easy to digest for the western viewer. I do not blame the director though, the most common used comment on "Ju-On" by the western viewers wás that they never understood a d*mn thing of the movie because there were too many flash-backs. And so, they make it chronological and easy to watch, throw in some "scary" moments, cut out the things that made the movie really SCARY in the first place and PRESTO, more raving reviews than the originals ever got. Mr. Shimizu probably wanted to re-do this movie on a bigger budget, but it would have been appreciated by me (and a lot of people I know) if some of the edginess would have been saved in this remake instead of fancy rendering/ animation. Sometimes less ís more.

This movie seems to have either great fans or people that are dead against it. I am part of the first mentioned. I am not new to the Japanese horror genre; I would call myself a fan. But I have been disappointed a great many times. Not on this occasion. After the much anticipated (yet greatly disappointing) "Ringu", "Dark Water" I picked this copy up with not much enthusiasm. Praises!!! It was AWESOME!! One of the few movies to ever scare me at all (add to that the fact that someone was actually murdered in my house; and we have a serious winner)

What I like most is the fact that the movie doesn't tell ALL the facts like why does this ghost kills people that haven't harmed her or what the pale looking boy is actually doing (being evil or just likes to hang around his mom?)But come on, do they need to tell all? Isn't the fact that you don't know everything and no-one is save even scarier? They also let you find out some things by yourself. The plot is cut-up into little sequences and these little parts are not in chronological order. See the movie twice.It helps. Finally, the best feature about this movie is the fact that it's not scary in the sense that it's filled with blood and guts; but the great job they did on the atmosphere in this film. It's dark and macabre.

Some people would describe Kayako-crawling-down-the-stairs as silly or even funny, but combined with that "aaaahhhh" sound it was in my experience one of the scariest images in horror movies in a LONG, LONG time.

I always get kind of agitated when producers feel a need to make sequels. I have never seen one that actually mattered. This one didn't either.

Having said that I do feel a need to actually recommend this Ju-On part. Besides the obvious rerun of old tricks, some of the new material is actually quite interesting and well-thought of. For example the thuds on the wall (that the couple hears every night around 12.30)are later explained in an eerie way. The wig-on-the-floor-thing was nicely done.

Finally, I thought the birth was original as well as the ending of the movie.

All in all entertaining (for a "Part two" movie) but not a MUST SEE.