The Grudge (15)
Posted by Guest Writer on Fri, 05 Nov 2004.
Starring: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jason Behr, Ted Raimi, Bill Pullman.
The Japanese believe that when a person dies in the grip of great sorrow or anger, the feeling haunts the place of death. It is this belief upon which The Grudge is based.
The Grudge, a remake of the Japanese film "Ju-on: The Grudge", whilst scary, has little in the way of plot or character development, choosing to favour anything that will make the audience jump, scream, or even wince at some of the more "gory" parts.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that this is a worthless film, in fact, it's far from this. The thing is, that The Grudge is attempting to ride on the success of The Ring under the genre of "scary psycho woman with long hair who's gonna get ya". Which is going to get old, sooner or later.
The storyline behind the film is kind of complicated, so maybe I'd better try to explain. Basically, the house in which the story is based was home to three people; Takeo, Kayako and their son Toshio. Kayako became obsessed with Peter, a man she knew and started to stalk him. Takeo, her husband, found this out and, in his rage, murdered both Kayako and Toshio, hanging himself soon after.
About five years after this, a new family moved into the house. The care worker that was attending to the elderly woman, Emma, vanished without a trace and Karen (Gellar), was sent in to replace her. Most of the plot revolves around the "spirit" of Kayako and Toshio who murder anyone who sets foot in the house.
Overall, whilst lacking in plot and character, the effects and suspense built up throughout are more than enough to keep you on the edge of your seat.
Just remember to take a friend.