Review of The Grudge (The Re-make)

[Sushi]

Review of The Grudge

“When a person dies in the grip of a terrible rage, their spirit haunts the space where they lived”.

Following Hollywood’s recent trend of remaking Japanese horror films comes The Grudge, a re-make of the overrated yet enjoyable Japanese cult classic Ju-On: The Grudge. However, unlike The Ring, what makes this re-make enticing is that not only does it remain set in Japan, but the original director Takashi Shimizu has been brought in to show Hollywood how it’s done.

The film focuses on student Karen Davis (Sarah Michelle Gellar) who upon volunteering at a care centre for social welfare credit, has to cover for a nurse who recently disappeared. She is sent to care for an old catatonic American woman at a mysterious house and becomes embroiled by its dark past.

With this being his fourth variation on The Grudge, Shimizu perfects fantastic set pieces, which genuinely leaves the viewer terrified and in the long term disturbed. However, the film unfortunately fails to live up to the original with a poor script, even worse acting, and disorientating time frame.

If you enjoyed The Ring it might be worth seeing, but do yourself a favour and pick up a copy of the original to see how it was meant to be done.

2/5

[WeMissGamecentral]

I enjoyed The Grudge, it was good enough to make me jump at times.

[dynastygal]

djfryer2003 said:

I enjoyed The Grudge, it was good enough to make me jump at times.

Same here. Was a pretty good film, imo. I want to see the original though.

[Sushi]

I watched the original when it was showing in a local cinema last year, and to be honest me and my friend laughed through some of it... but strangely it has had a disturbing effect in the long term. There is something about that apocalytic ending...

I especially hate the noise it make... freaks me out.

My favourite scene has to be early on when the woman is being chased in the building and you see the ghost thing manifest on the security footage... and the following section when she returns to her flat... the entire notion that nowhere is safe is very effective.

What annoys me was that The Grudge had the new spin to it about alienation in another culture (Lost in Translation-ish), which I feel it failed to exploit to its full potential.