Ju-On - The Grudge (DVD)

A review of Premier Asia's 'Special Collector's Edition'. This Japanese film was made in 2003, and followed in the wake of Ring, which popularised a certain type of Japanese horror in the West. Ju-On (aka Grudge) is one of the scariest films I've ever seen, managing to make me jump and feel a deep unease in the pit of my stomach even on repeated viewings. It might be the best horror film made in the last ten years or so. The plot is so simple as to be non-existent. There's a haunted house. Anyone who goes there is terrorised by some pretty damned scary ghosts. And, er, that's it. The film is broken down into chapters, each focusing on a different ...  Read the complete review

Forget the American remake starring Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy the Japanese Ghost Slayer, I'm reviewing the real deal; the one, the only, the terrifying original version that is Ju-On: The Grudge. Based on an old Japanese legend about a malevolent spirit which puts a rather nasty curse on a house, this slow burning psychological horror is very much in the vein of The Ring and Dark Water, by the brilliant director Hideo Nakata, or The Eye by the Pang brothers. Ju-On (as I'm going to call it) is written and directed by Shimizu Takashi, who (for trivia fans) also directed the American remake of his own film, and is directing the up-coming sequel, The Grudge ...  Read the complete review

In Japanese folklore it is said that when somebody dies whilst experience extreme hatred or pain then that emotion lingering in the place of death - killing anyone who enters it. Karen is a young American who is working in Japan as a care worker and when she is asked to look after an elderly lady whose family have mysteriously disappeared she is excited to have an American to look after. However, when she gets there the woman is mute and she feels a strong presence in he house, a presence which just may threaten her and her boyfriends life. But can she unravel the dark history of the home before the curse takes hold of her? The Grudge is an interesting, ...  Read the complete review

Try as he might - and Lord knows he has tried awful hard - still, despite the seemingly endless run of remakes and sequels and addendums and what have you, Takashi Shimizu has failed to diminish the power of his 2003 instant-classic Ju-On : The Grudge. Remade by Sam Raimi's Ghost House production company (and again directed by Shimizu) as simply The Grudge, the film is itself a remake of Shimizu's earlier (and, if truth be told, better - but a DVD release still eludes us) TV movie Ju-On : The Curse. It shares that film's locale, spooks and fractured narrative, although it is does follow a slightly more conventional route come the final third. ...  Read the complete review

I've been working my way through a selection of Korean and Japanese horror films recently and this is my latest acquisition. I'm not sure why I like Asian horror so much, but I do think that having to read subtitles adds to the atmosphere. I had high expectations of this film. I've heard a lot about it and read some excellent reviews. Unfortunately, it wasn't as good as I expected; there are certainly much better Asian horror films out there. Just to confirm, I am reviewing the original Japanese version here, not the American version based on the original. The story The centre of the story is a house, rather than a character. A young social worker is ...  Read the complete review