The Grudge 2

Takashi Shimizu must be a man who loves the idea of The Grudge, well either that or he’s tied to some hellish contract that demands he make these movies for the rest of all eternity. Counting the Japanese sequels and remakes he has now made 7 (count ‘em) Grudge films, and with this latest effort you can almost feel the cogs spinning as he goes through the motions. Creepy dead people appearing to certain characters? Check. Characters entering haunted houses for a laugh, then being punished? Check. Lots of silent built up tension followed by loud noise? Check. What makes this film even more unremarkable is that it isn’t really a new story. Confusingly (bare with me here) this is not a remake of the Japanese Grudge Sequel (Ju-On 2), instead it takes the elements from the first Japanese film that were left out of the first remake, and mixes them with new plots. So it’s basically Ju-On the remake, part deux.

What seems to have got lost in translation is any kind of cohesion in the story elements. Shimizu seems to think cutting between three separate stories automatically links them together, but instead all it does is cause frustration and confusion. In the film we follow a group of schoolgirls who visit the house, Aubrey, the sister of Karen the main character in the first film who has been sent to Japan to bring her sister back, and a mysterious family who have also seemingly been exposed to the Grudge as it affects their life (I have since found out that this thread of the story takes place in Chicago not Japan and is set after the other events of the film. That fact that I had to find this out now speaks volumes for the cohesion of the films plotlines). However that is about all you get in terms of narrative drive and character exposition. Characters don’t talk in this film, well not about any deep, or much at all. They meet up, split up and get creeped out in predictable ways.

As with the previous Grudge movies the victims of the initial series of murders haunt those who have been in contact with the house, a little boy and a woman, and yet the impossible and random nature of their attacks somehow make them less scary. They can seemingly manifest at will, and yet often just appear to freak out individuals rather than harm them. They can appear anywhere at any time and yet there is no pattern, no reason seemingly for their behaviour. The nearest we get to an explanation in the lot is that it cannot be stopped and it will keep growing, the kind of ominous threat that serves as evidence of the Shimizu / hellish contract theory. The trouble is that the film once again is well made, it had good art design and direction and some of the ideas and scares are pretty effective. Despite the best efforts of the script writer and the story team some bits of the film are pretty effective and reminds you that the actual premise can be fairly scary if used effectively, the trouble is it is used very rarely in this film.

So at the end of the day I think it’s fair to say that this is one series that really should either be put to rest or radically altered. It is stale and repetitive and nonsensical and whilst Shimizu will probably go on to make these movies in his sleep for the rest of his life he is clearly more talented than that. This film is a waste of all the talent involved and the redeeming features are quickly washed away by the horribly vague characterisations and seemingly random story developments (clue: there are none). If this was the first in a series then I might be more forgiving but even more so than the other recent Japanese remake sequel (The Ring 2) this feels like a hollow effort, an excuse to slap the memorable scares around yet more people for no good reason other than to establish a franchise, and that really is the kiss of death for any horror film. There is nothing frightening about the familiar and unfortunately there is no better word that sums up this film.

A tired and confused mess this is an all too familiar film that adds little to the mythos of the Grudge and whilst is has some good ideas and sequences it falls down at the first hurdle by having characters you don’t care about in situations that aren’t explained. A waste and a sure sign of a series in dire need of killing off itself.