Ju-on: White Ghost

Normally I am very fond of Japanese horror movies, and in overall then the "Ju-On" series have been adequate; the Japanese originals of course, not the abysmal Hollywood cash-in on the success of the Japanese movies.

However, this 2009 installment in the franchise was a swing and a miss.

First of all, the production level of the entire movie feels like something I could have done myself as an audience. It just lacks proper production value to be a proper movie.

The story was fragmented and a scrambled mess of a story, that made very little coherent sense.

The acting in the movie was adequate, although the actors and actresses had nothing to work with.

"Ju-on: Shiroi rôjo" had fair special effects, but they were far from being great mind you.

There was nothing scary about the movie at all, which made it a very dull and pointless experience to sit through. Especially if you compare it to the previous installments in the franchise.

This is definitely not a Japanese horror movie that you should rush out to invest your time or money in.

JU-ON: WHITE GHOST is an hour-long follow up to the original GRUDGE films that was made back-to-back with companion film JU-ON: BLACK GHOST. These films continue the same mythos as in the first two feature-length movies, adding in new characters and allowing them to get haunted by the ghost from the original.

Let's be fair: these are straight-to-video short films so quality-wise they're not going to be on par with the first two features. But JU-ON: WHITE GHOST isn't too bad. The central female ghost is watered down and CGI-ed up since the original, so not as frightening, but is acceptable for a straight-to-video horror flick.

At an hour long you can never get bored by this, and the story plays out as a bunch of five minute vignettes that only begin to make sense towards the climax. Indeed, trying to work out the film's mixed-up chronology keeps the interest level high. The acting is of a strong standard throughout and there's a mix of scary and gory moments to keep viewers watching.

The only Ju-on movie I've watched so far, I think this one is okay. There are a lot of scary and brutal moments at the beginning, but one of the worst things about it is that the final 20 minutes aren't really that scary. I hope to give Black Ghost a try soon.

Just saw this movie and the bad thing about this is that it only hour one long.

it not got anything to do with Ju-on-The Grudges movies! This is brand new Grudge story, it dose have the same feel to movie just like other but not great like the other two movies but still really really good, I really liked this movie it is creepy and it had some great creepy moment and one and two shocking moments too, I Can't believe it just less then hour, it was so good wanted to see again.

If you liked the other Ju-on movies, give this watch, it only 58min long 8/10

The Japanese short (1 hr) horror films Ju-On: White Ghost and Ju: On Black Ghost were released together on 27th June 2009, to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the start of the Ju-On (Grudge) horror franchise. White Ghost was directed by Ryuta Miyake and Black Ghost by Mari Asato. Each film deals with the massacre of a family by what turns out to be supernatural means (the events of White Ghost are fleetingly referenced at the beginning of Black Ghost), but other than that they are unrelated. And be warned - they are in that trademark Ju-On non-linear style of storytelling, so piecing together what happens can be a challenge if you fancy it (or just look at the Wikipedia entries for each film - they summarise the events for both chronologically).

White Ghost is easily the better of the two. The story's actually pretty deep, and deals with (amongst other things) the sexual abuse of a child. It also has a fantastic and gory third act and one of the creepiest openings ever for a haunted house movie (the cake delivery).

Black Ghost starts off well but never really achieves the level of creepiness of White Ghost. It also doesn't help that some of the adult female characters look so similar (it does, however, have the stunning Kana Tsugihara in a small role near the beginning).

White Ghost and Black Ghost both have some well-shot and atmospheric scenes, but White Ghost utilises them better - and has a much better payoff.

White Ghost -- 8/10, Black Ghost -- 6/10.