THE GRUDGE 2

By: Abbie Bernstein
Review Date: Tuesday, October 17, 2006

THE GRUDGE 2 has a complicated history, so bear with this for a moment. There's a 2000 Japanese film, JU-ON: THE GRUDGE, which was remade as an American film, THE GRUDGE, in 2004 by the original's director/creator, Takashi Shimizu. Shimizu did JU-ON 2 in Japan in 2003, and now he's directed an English GRUDGE 2, but this is just a sequel to the U.S. GRUDGE, not a remake of JU-ON 2. Got all that?

If you don't, don't sweat it. If you've seen any of the other versions which were scary, if sometimes paradoxically a bit dull you may have noticed a weird internal contradiction. All of the GRUDGE movies take great pains to start by informing us that when a person dies in a state of great rage, a curse is born that transfers this rage to anyone who comes in contact with the infuriated spirit. However, the films then simply showed us people being tormented by ghosts the living victims weren't angry, just scared. GRUDGE 2 begins by finally paying off the notion of contagious fury among the living, showing the hazards of picking a quarrel with one's mate while breakfast is cooking.

However, the opening sequence is in Chicago and "the most haunted house in Japan" is still back where we left it in Tokyo, albeit in much more dilapidated condition since Karen Davis (Sarah Michelle Gellar) tried to burn it down at the climax of the previous GRUDGE. Poor Karen is now sedated in a Tokyo hospital. Her younger, less confident sister Aubrey (Amber Tamblyn) is sent by their gravely ill mother to find out what's going on. Aubrey is approached by Eason (Edison Chen), a young reporter who's investigating all the strange goings-on. Together, they try to find out what would cause the previously sane Karen to commit arson. At the same time, there's another plot thread about three schoolgirls two American exchange students and one local who visit the house, and a third strand concerning the children in the Chicago household we see in the beginning.


Even if you guess how all these things are connected (which isn't that hard), GRUDGE 2 is very satisfyingly creepy, with some great nightmarish images. The squeamish will be pleased to note that actual gore is at a minimum, something that others may lament (in particular, it seems a shame in the opening sequence). The acting is extremely good, with even small roles filled by staunch pros.

As before, Shimizu and screenwriter Stephen Susco jump around in time and place, but for whatever reason, GRUDGE 2 has a stronger sense of momentum than either its U.S. or Japanese predecessors, putting forth a through-line that neither overloads us with exposition or compromises the scares but just gives us a sense of narrative movement.

As scary sequels go, this is better than many and certainly worth a look.