The Grudge 2

Including two shorts, the Japanese original Ju-on, its sequel, the American remake and now its follow-up, Takashi Shimizu has directed six films about the grudge curse. Shimizu has grown fond of his ghosts and in The Grudge 2, this fondness is apparent. He puts them everywhere - in cupboards, under covers, behind mirrors, under desks and rather inexplicably, lurking within the hoods of sweaters. It was a good, pretty scary movie, but the first like i said was way scarier and better! I would watch the first one five times then watch this again, like it was OK, but i wouldn't buy it, maybe give it a chance and rent it!

This sequel now shows the infamous curse in more power and a greater range. But it does not improvise in any manner to its predecessor. The story remains the same. People are getting affected and dying the same deaths. Every thing that is going to happen can be pretty much well known in advance for a seasoned movie goer.

There are three parallel story lines that shift in ways that further reduce the fun in the movie and does not allow you get involved. Kayako's past is explained in more detail but the again the explanation does not seem too buy-able. All in all there is nothing much this sequel has to offer. It could be subjected to one watch, but on a rented DVD or VCD. But I would definitely not choose to buy the Grudge movies 1 and 2 for collection purpose.

Being a huge fan of the original Ju-On movies, as well as the original American remake, I was looking forward to this one. But my excitement dwindled right from the opening scene, as The Grudge 2 quickly became a predictable and mundane sequel. A typical American-ized sequel that sadly didn't follow the unique plot of Ju-On 2.

After Sarah Michelle Gellar's cameo, the movie focuses on her sister, but gives her nothing to do. What seems like a totally separate storyline inside an apartment building is more distracting than involving. The scares become very routine and there are so many characters here, that the viewer cannot become attached to any of them.

The movie does, however, kick it up in the final twenty minutes or so. And the ending is a lot darker and much more mean spirited than the original, and for that, it has to earn some points for not taking the safe way out.

The Grudge 2 is not a complete loss, but it could have been so much better.

In Pasadena, Mrs. Davis (Joanna Cassidy) sends her daughter Aubrey Davis (Amber Tamblyn) to Tokyo to bring her sister Karen Davis (Sarah Michelle Gellar), who is interned in a hospital after surviving a fire, back to the USA. After their meeting, Karen dies and Aubrey decides to investigate what happened to her and gets herself cursed in the same situation, being chased by the ghost of the house. Meanwhile in Tokyo, the three high school mates Allison (Arielle Kebbel), Vanessa (Teresa Palmer) and Miyuki (Misako Uno) visit the famous haunted house and are also cursed and chased by the ghost. In Chicago, Trish (Jennifer Beals) moves to the apartment of her boyfriend Bill (Christopher Cousins), who lives with his children, the teenager Lacey (Sarah Roehmer) and boy Jake (Matthew Knight). On the next door, weird things happen with their neighbor.

"The Grudge 2" has scary sound and visual effects, with the creepy woman and boy, and I have startled a couple of times while watching this movie. However, the complex screenplay with three subplots is totally confused, making the entwined story a complete mess. There are too much characters and situations, and in a certain moment I was completely lost with the disconnected and fragmented narrative. In the end, I was completely disappointed with this confused, but also spooky film. My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): "O Grito 2" ("The Scream 2")

Sequels are a tricky thing. You have to serve the core audience who saw the first film, while trying to not prove too bewildering to a new audience that may have not seen the original. Horror films are even more difficult to spin a sequel off from, as suspense and scares are often, by nature, dependent on a lack of expectation from the audience. With The Grudge 2, director Takashi Shimizu and screenwriter Stephen Susco have attempted to not fall into that trap by approaching the sequel a little differently, but by the time it's over, unfortunately, it still proves to be a little too repetitive for its own good.

Unlike 2004's The Grudge, which unfolded in a largely linear fashion, The Grudge 2 shakes things up a bit by splitting the narrative between three different plot lines that all take place at different times. First, there is the continuation, essentially, of the story from the first film, where Karen Davis (Sarah Michelle Gellar) is being kept in a hospital after surviving the ordeal of the first film, which centered around a house in Japan where a woman had been killed by her husband and thus created "The Grudge," a rage that consumes every living being that enters the house. Arriving from America to attempt to retrieve Karen is her sister Aubrey (Amber Tamblyn), who quickly becomes embroiled in the same situation as Karen. Second is a plot thread featuring Allison (Arielle Kebbel), an American girl in high school in Japan who is goaded by two classmates to enter the spooky house from the first film and finds that it lives up to its haunted house reputation. Finally, the third plot string plays out in Chicago, Illinois, where Trish (Jennifer Beals) has moved in with her boyfriend Bill (Christopher Cousins) and his two children, Lacey (Sarah Roehmer) and Jake (Matthew Knight). The same day as she moves in, so does a mysterious neighbor, after which everyone in the apartment complex starts acting weird.

When The Grudge 2 works, the best word to describe it is creepy. The horrific imagery, mostly of a long haired, blue skinned Japanese woman and a young child, is unsettling and when they appear on screen, accompanied by some equally disturbing sound effects, it can't help but send chills up and down your spine. However, the circumstances in which these characters make their appearances have used up the suspense quotient of this franchise. By now the rules are clear, when characters are alone and everything seems normal, these beings are popping up somewhere to scare the bejesus out of whoever is on screen and attempt to exact their revenge. It works sometimes, but the film fails to make any adjustments to the situations involving these beings, and you stop really being surprised by their appearance and begin expecting it. Yes, they are creepy, but the circumstances that surround them are relatively rote. Suspense works well when you can't predict what is going to happen, but in The Grudge 2, after a while, it all seems rather familiar.

The film's fractured narrative, while giving The Grudge 2 some difference from the previous entry, works against the film in many ways also. Because it is constantly switching back and forth between three different subplots, it is difficult to get attached to any of the characters. Of course, as this is a modern horror film, the characters are relatively thin to begin with, but with the constant cutting between stories, it becomes enormously difficult to get a bead on anyone and develop much attachment to them. So, when the characters find themselves in peril, you have a hard time feeling much sympathy for them. The Grudge 2 also has a plot twist, which early on becomes reasonably obvious, so when it plays out at the end, there isn't much surprise in store.

The actors are the usual batch of relative no names, for the most part. The girls in the film, which is what the stories largely center around, do their best to cry, scream and shake hysterically, and they are all reasonably effective, but there is nothing revolutionary being performed. Sarah Michelle Gellar reappears for a relatively small role, so she doesn't make much impact, and the other major actress, Jennifer Beals, is also saddled with what almost amounts to a bit part.

The Grudge 2 isn't a complete bomb, by any means, it is more than disturbing enough in moments to provide some general discomfort that horror films should try to apply. However, other than some chills here and there, The Grudge 2 doesn't offer anything tremendously original or scary, resulting in a largely mixed bag.