The Grudge 3

I always preferred the original Japanese titles to the second rate American remakes, but as there was no Jap Grudge 3 it became a no brainer (in every sense of the phrase). I enjoyed the first two films a fair bit; I wouldn't have said that they rocked my world, but were not such a bad way to spend an hour and a half.

This third installment is almost not part of the same franchise; OK, so there are the same main characters from the previous two and the so-called curse that is supposed to be attributed to the location where the murders took place (therefore how can it move to the USA just because the story needs it as a plot device?), other than that nothing much. The characters are all horrendous stereotypes from clichéd horror films which were all done far better than this mess, the story plods along slower than it has any right to and the majority of the first hour does little other than explain who the 4 main characters are, which could be done in around 5 minutes if handled correctly!! There is little by way of gore apart from a couple of stabbing scenes and an off-screen pulverisation; which for most of us horror film fans is the ultimate pay off and the reason we sit through the rest of the tiresome background building sections and introductory necessities! The end is a complete formality and would have been better to have just ended on a blank screen and a decent, well-produced sound-byte...most of which are handled atrociously incidentally...

I give it 4 out of 10; one point for each of the deaths and one point for the joyous sight of the end credits appearing. Avoid unless sleepless...this may help!