The Grudge Review
by Jon Popick (jpopick AT sick-boy DOT com)October 22nd, 2004
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I hate sequels and despise remakes even more, but there's something kind of cool about a filmmaker having another shot at making one of his own films. See a stupid mistake in the original (like casting Affleck)? You get another crack at it. Second guessing the way you handled a particular scene? It's like turning back time to correct it.
This is what we get with Takashi Shimizu's The Grudge, an updated version of his very own sequel-spawning Japanese blockbuster of the (sort of) same name. If you're tired of the same old by-the-numbers American horror flicks, but enjoyed The Ring and What Lies Beneath, you'll probably appreciate The Grudge. It isn't plagued with masked murderers, predictable killings or a bad modern rock soundtrack. And Shimizu gives it all to us in jumbled time - a true rarity for a mainstream film of this genre. Seeing a big star like Bill Pullman eat it in the first scene is pretty jarring. I mean, he was in Caspar, for chrissake.
Sarah Michelle Gellar plays Karen, a Tokyo college student who works at The Care Center to satisfy a sociology elective. Her first solo home visit involves caring for a catatonic woman named Emma (Grace Zabriskie) in a house that, unbeknownst to anyone, was the site of a grisly family murder several years earlier. Yes, Karen is a substitute for Emma's usual caretaker. Yes, that caretaker hasn't been seen for a while. Yes, there are forces in the house that don't exactly warm up to people inhabiting it. And yes, these forces (played by the same actors from several of the Japanese versions) kill Tom Cruise's cousin.
Plenty of jumps and genuine creepiness ensue. And along with dead Cruise kin, could you really ask for anything else? I mean other than all Tokyo-based American films opening with a shot of Scarlett Johansson's panties, I mean.
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
