|
| Grudge 2, The (2006) |
|
  (2/10)
|
Runtime: 95 |
| Public Rating: 7.74 (27 votes) |
Director: Takashi Shimizu |
MPAA Rating:  |
| Genre: Horror/Mystery/Thriller |
Year: 2006 |
| Writer(s): Stephen Susco, Takashi Shimizu (writer: Ju-On: The Grudge) |
| Distributor: Columbia Pictures |
| Reviewed by: Mel Valentin |
| |
Two years ago, the remake of a little-known Japanese horror film starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, The Grudge, became a surprise hit, making over $100 million dollars domestically. Directed by Takashi Shimizu (he helmed the Japanese original and every sequel that followed), The Grudge's domestic success followed the earlier surprise success of the American remake of The Ring. Remaking Japanese horror properties (dubbed "J-Horror" by fans and critics) became popular with American producers, but disappointing box-office returns for the remake of Dark Water and The Ring 2 seemed to indicated that the J-Horror wave had crested and that American audiences wanted a return to more explicit violence and gore in their horror diet and fewer black-haired wraiths or preternatural children with paranormal powers.
Keeping track of where we are with The Grudge remakes and sequels can be a daunting task, even for committed J-Horror fans. Including The Grudge 2 remake, Shimizu has visited The Grudge universe seven total times. Has Shimizu gone to the J-Horror well once too often? The Grudge owed much of its success to a simple approach, scare the audience as often as possible. Rather than take the usual "slow-burn" approach typical of J-Horror, The Grudge instead went for a series of ghoulish vignettes, each vignette punctuated with a predictably grisly death. With co-writer Stephen Susco borrowing the structure from the original, but substituting an American couple for the lead roles (plus an American professor teaching in Japan), Shimizu was all set to bring his vision of angry ghosts and gruesome deaths to English-language audiences.
What little plot it had centered on Karen Davis (Sarah Michelle Gellar), an American in Japan who takes a nursing job only to discover that her employer and his family have been subjected to a rage-filled and rage-inducing curse. Gellar's character was lead character in name only. Karen was offscreen for a good part of The Grudge's running time, as Shimizu killed off the secondary characters in self-contained episodes. As a vehicle for primal scares, The Grudge was certainly effective, but some critics and genre fans found the repetitive, often nonsensical plotting problematic. American audiences obviously didn't care, as The Grudge’s surprising box-office success can attest. The Grudge also confirmed that horror films could have a broader appeal across multiple demographics. But to broaden audience appeal, The Grudge toned down the violence and minimized the gore to PG-13 levels (to the displeasure of hardcore horror fans that want grue with their scares).
Which brings us to more of the same, a/k/a The Grudge 2 and a tagline that boldly (or is it baldly?) promises "What Was Once Trapped, Will Now Be Unleashed." Karen Davis (Sarah Michelle Gellar), seemingly doomed at the end of The Grudge is back, but only in a cameo. Learning that her Karen has been hospitalized, Karen’s younger sister, Aubrey (Amber Tamblyn), flies to Japan. Aubrey’s brief meeting with Karen ends with Karen warning Aubrey about ghosts and the haunted house. Undaunted by Karen’s warning and with the aid of a photographer/journalist, Eason (Edison Chen), Aubrey begins her investigation into the haunted house’s past. Like Karen, Aubrey learns that the house was the site of a double homicide committed by Takeo (Takashi Matsuyama) that left his wife, Kayako (Takako Fuji) and their son, Toshio (Ohga Tanaka), dead, later to become anger-filled ghosts haunting the house they died in.
In another storyline (this one apparently set two years after the central events involving Aubrey and Eason), Vanessa (Teresa Palmer), Miyuki (Misako Uno), high school students at the International School in Japan bait a third girl, Allison (Arielle Kebbel), to enter the haunted house, with predictably dire results for everyone involved. In the third storyline set in an apartment building in Chicago, a family of four, Trish (Jennifer Beals), Bill (Christopher Cousins), and his two children from a previous relationship, Lacey (Sarah Roemer) and Jake (Matthew Knight). A new tenant moves in with their neighbors. The new tenant appears to be emotionally and mentally disturbed, hiding her face behind a hooded sweatshirt and given to fits of uncontrollable sobbing and rummaging noisily through recycling bins. But like the ghosts from the other storylines, her behavior begins to negatively affect the other tenants.
Let’s be serious here, though. The names, genders, or backgrounds of the primary and secondary characters are completely irrelevant. The characters are in The Grudge 2 for a singular purpose: to be exposed to the curse, and once exposed, to die painful deaths. Once dead, they become cursed as well, doomed to haunt and infect others with the curse, on and on, until all the characters are either dead, transformed into ghosts, or manage to escape (unlikely, but slightly possible). Cue croaking sounds, bones snapping, pale-skinned ghosts moving awkwardly, bathtubs filled with dank water, shock cuts of ghosts appearing in windows, in dark corners, or under desks, and long, black hair emerging from unexpected places.
But a narrative strategy that worked well two years ago with American audiences that become trite, stale, repetitive, and ineffective just two years later. Shimizu and Susco had little in the way of story to begin with and they have even less here, with the exception of newly revealed backstory for Kayako and her mother that cribs heavily from the Ring films. Sure, The Grudge 2 has a few jump scares, but even there, it becomes quickly apparent that Kayako and Toshio have lost their ability to generate fear in audiences. Laughter, on the other hand, is far more likely. Plus, The Grudge 2 is just one more genre entry that depends on the stupidity, naïveté, and/or curiosity of the characters to move their respective stories, even after they’ve been warned about the house or its supernatural occupants. Throw in unexpectedly poor, unprofessional lighting (everyone looks washed out, even outdoors) and that déjà vu feeling all over again means exactly one thing: The Grudge 2 isn’t worth seeing, even for diehard fans of The Grudge or its Japanese predecessors.
© Mel Valentin, 13th October, 2006
|
 Printable Version
|
Do you agree/disagree with this review of Grudge 2, The (2006)? Let your opinions be heard in our forum.
|
Buy the Poster of Grudge 2, The (2006) (Click Here)
|
|
|
|
