Movie Review: Ju-On: The Grudge

"Ju-On: The Grudge" by Takashi Shimizu is one of my favorite Asian Horror films, I hold it in high regards with the likes of "The Eye", "Tale of Two Sisters" and "Ring 0: Birthday". So needless to say when I first heard about the remake, I was very excited and anxiously awaited its release. From what I have already seen and read about the film (trailers/pics/news reports), I knew going in that I was going to like this film. But some questions still remained. Could "The Grudge" equal or at least be on the same playing field of the original, and can Takashi capture the same feeling of terror and pulse quickening dread that was felt while watching the original? Well, I was about to soon find out.. but I can tell you this much.. I felt my pulse quicken when the theater lights went out.. and it didn’t slow down till the lights came back on.

For those who still may not know, "The Grudge" is a remake of Takashi Shimizu’s "Ju-On: The Grudge", which in turn is directed by Takashi himself. The story outline is pretty much as follows: The Grudge is a curse of one who dies in the grip of a powerful rage. Those who encounter this murderous supernatural curse die and a new one is born - passed like a virus from victim to victim in an endless, growing chain of horror. Sarah (Gellar) is new to Tokyo and works for a volunteer care center. She is given her first assignment at a house newly inhabited by the Williams family and soon is thrust into the world of a trio of murderous ghosts.

Now with having seen the original, I pretty much felt like I knew going in what to expect and in reality, I was right. During the whole movie I had a strange feeling that I was keeping a secret from those whom had never experienced any of the Grudge movies before, and who did not know what to expect. Now did this lessen the total experience for me? In a way, I’d have to say yes. The movie would of made a greater impact on me if I had never of seen any of the previous Ju-On films. But this film is still very good.

The beginning of the film was brilliant, it set the tone for the movie perfectly. Takako Fuji (Kayako Saeki) and Yuya Ozeki (Toshio Saeki) were creepy as hell, and would give Sadako/ Samara (The Ring) a run for her money any day. Also, what probably worked the best for "The Grudge" is the mood and imagery of this film, as some people would say, "its ACE."

I also felt that the story telling was stronger in this one compared to the original. In other words, I was able to follow it better. One of the only knocks I would have on the original was that at times it did get hard to follow. Even with the multiple story lines and moving forwards and backwards within the timeline, the director did a better job this time at keeping everything together.

The acting worked "well enough". None of it was outstanding, and what character development the film had was decent enough.

I’m just going to come out and say it "the ending." I saw it coming a mile away, and you will too. They could have done a better job at tightening it up.

This will be more for the one’s who have seen both films (original and remake) but when they filmed certain scenes, it felt like they wanted to get to the "scare factor" quickly and then move on to the next scene. There were some scenes where I was like ‘Man, only if they would of built up the tension a little more, the scare would have been 100 times more effective."

This is just a minor gripe, but they left out one of the best scenes of the original, which actually is one of my favorite.. how did Takashi leave it out?

Overall, yes I liked the movie a lot, and yes "The Grudge" can stand on its own. If you are looking for a good, solid movie that has some great atmosphere as well as some good scares – then this is your movie. I’d rate this film 4/5 and I cant wait for the unrated dvd.

deadmanwalkin – Movies Online News Reporter