The Grudge

'The Grudge' isn't the best horror film and it isn't the scariest either, but there's something about it that always manages to get to me. From the very first scene, which is appropriately bizarre, to the last, 'The Grudge' is a very creepy movie and I can't quite put my finger on why.

It is successfully unnerving partly due to the eerie and tense atmosphere that surround the whole story. There are a few jump scares but nothing that will scare the average horror fan, but it does have the ability to make you feel uneasy and does a good job at building and maintaining tension.

'The Grudge' is nothing special or new and there are certainly scarier horror films out there, but it does have the ability to put the viewer on edge every now and then. I've seen it several times and it still creeps me out.

I saw this movie on satellite. I originally started to watch it because I was curious to see what Buffy the Vampire Slayer was up to now.

Thirty minutes...or maybe less...into the movie, I was hooked. For sheer skin-crawling creepiness, this film is near the top of my list. Unfortunately, it was on so late that I had to go to bed right after it was over. I didn't sleep well that night. One of my sons had seen it before, in a theater, and now I could understand his reluctance to go up into the attic of our house. More is implied than is explicitly shown in this movie, which makes the few explicit moments all the more scary. But the implied stuff will work its way into the darker recesses of your imagination and last longer, so that for a while afterward you'll have an aversion to stairwells, elevators, small children, train rides...and dark attics. If you like a good horror film, I can heartily recommend this one. The only complaint I had about it was the ending, which seemed a little too Western for a remake of a Japanese film.

This movie definitely loses something in the translation. Unlike "The Ring" which equaled and even improved on the original story in some ways, this one just meanders along in an uninspired fashion.

The original Japanese film, "Ju-on", was pretty incoherent, mostly just a series of set pieces and great chills. The American version, directed by the same filmmaker, has done nothing towards clarifying the muddled story and, aside from the great opening sequences, is just a straight-forward recreation of the same suspenseful sequences that somehow don't play as well. I'd suggest renting the original instead.

5 out of 10.

so, being a fairly deep fan of horror movies, it's been a while since i've seen one that really made me jump (or fidget nervously.)

definitely going to get this on DVD when it comes out... a hell of a lot better than the ring. the thing that i don't get is that so many people that we talkd with after the movie thought that it was horrible, well, if that's what you think, then so be it... i know what i liked and it takes a fair amount to get me to actually feel scared, so i have to say that this one is worth watching.

now, you might be disappointed in the story if you need everything in a neat and tidy line, because the plot goes back an forth a little bit to help build the story (i think that if it was shown in chronological order, it would have ruined the whole thing.)

i'm actually glad that this movie had very little bloody messes in it... maybe the rest of you studio writers and whathaveyous will realize that you don't have to splash the red stuff all over the set to make people afraid.

In Tokyo, when the American student Karen Davis (Sarah Michelle Gellar) is called by a Japanese social support agency to replace her Japanese colleague Yoko (Yoko Maki) in the assistance of the American sick woman Emma (Grace Zabriskie), she realizes that something supernatural lives in the huge house. Inspector Nakagawa (Ryo Ishibashi) investigates a series of deaths of visitors of the subjected house, and based on a Japanese belief, he convinces himself that the place is cursed.

"The Grudge" is a different movie of haunted house. I have not had the chance to see the original "Ju-on: The Grudge" yet, but this story is much related to Japanese culture. The beginning of the film makes reference to a Japanese saying about rage, which is unknown in Western cultures. The non-linear screenplay works reasonably, but could be better and better. It gives me the impression that something is missing to be a great movie. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "O Grito" ("The Scream")