HALLOWEEN - Buffy The Little Girl Ghost Slayer (Ju-On - The Grudge (DVD))

Name: JayHall1991

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Product:	Ju-On - The Grudge (DVD)
Date:	28/10/06 (179 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Imaginative, Well Directed, Inventivem, Interesting

Disadvantages: Episodic, Confused

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, imaginative, atmospheric and intelligent contempory horror film with enough gore for the teen crowd and enough directorial finesse to make it a satisfying viewing experience for adults. It slowly becomes more nail biting as the film progresses retching up the tension to a decent height and the plot is intricate and well drawn enough to keep the audience captivated. From the shocking opening sequence to the cliff-hanger ending I found The Grudge to be a scary, intense, surprising edition to the recent slew of Japanese horror remakes.

The main reason that I liked the Grudge was the story behind it - I love the idea that intense emotions can stay in a building and effect the people who enter it, I just find it interesting, fresh and terrifying. I find it so intriguing because I believe that it is quite possibly true, where does hatred, pain and devastation go when you die? could it possibly take on a life of its own? Can extreme feeling linger in a building? I don’t know but I think it is a premise which holds so much scope, so many avenues to explore, there’s huge potential for twists and turns and allows the film to have a strange sort of reality to it - which makes it infinitely more interesting than a lot of other horror pics. As the movie progresses the audience gets to learn the back-story of the building (along with the main character) which is surprisingly harrowing and engaging, the scripter creates a rich and intriguing reason for the houses profound effect on people. Because the movie almost becomes an investigation/murder mystery the audience becomes involved in the puzzle which makes the outcome very rewarding.

The main thing that stands out with the Grudge is the immense sense of apocalypse and despair that shrouds the whole thing - the atmosphere is quite extraordinary, really dark and draining, everything about it is sinister and ‘evil’. Takashi Shimizu flows pain and grief through the proceedings which really comes across to the audience, there is an odd sense of oppression and rawness that spikes through at every possible occasion and as the thing progresses the movie becomes like an animal ready to pounce, strong, powerful and unpredictable. The atmosphere that builds is tense and hugely successful - by using a dark colour palette and ‘creepy’ music along with a good understanding of how to get under an audiences skin Shimizu really builds a unique and engaging sense of foreboding. One of the most ingenious things about his directing is the way he plays with the watchers expectations - things that audiences have been conditioned to see as ‘safe’ suddenly become prime places for death and violence. Beds, light spaces and working environments are employed to trick the audience into breathing a sigh of relief before he hits us with a shock snatch of violence or mutuality.

Sadly the problems which plagued the original Japanese version still linger around in the Hollywood remake, namely the confused plot structure and wild use of time- the final half hour whilst clever and effective never really makes that much sense. By clouding the sharpness of the story with too much complexity the script trips itself up, the pace becomes stilted and the audience is never that sure when the action on screen is taking place. I enjoyed finding out the history of the place and the seamless cut to cut time structure could have worked, but its not done with enough coherency or vision - its an interesting way of telling a story, but as any fan of the original series will know that it is hard to keep a coherent story whilst using it. However the way that three stories are told side by side is frequently beautifully handled - First there is the story of an American couple and an elderly mother who move to Japan because of work commitments, then Karen who works as a care worker for the woman when the couple mysteriously disappear and then the story of an American teacher who becomes embroiled in the whole thing without knowing it. All three are well drawn and gather enough empathy for the characters to make them devastating and engaging.

As a long term Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan I see Sarah Michelle Gellar as one of the most talented and watchable young actresses working today - but she needs to start making movies that show it. Here she is a suitably strong lead and embodies the unusually resourceful and intelligent main character with enough spark and grace to make Karen believable and not just another damsel in distress. She also deals with the more emotional scenes well with an engaging (but not pathetic) vulnerability that allows the audience to connect with and care about the character. Convincing as a 20 something Nancy Drew she makes finding out the central mystery good fun and when she gets to do some action she shows herself to be perfectly able - but its just not enough. As anyone who has seen some of Buffy’s highlights will know Gellar has a strong screen presence, intelligence and maturity that would stand her in good stead for heavier more satisfying roles - yet she insists on making this and the Scooby-Doo films. That being said she does bring something to the role and she is so beautiful that I could just watch her for hours anyway.

Whilst I wouldn’t call The Grudge horrific or terrifying, it does have some decent scares throughout and the atmosphere is undoubtedly creepy - more scary than the action on screen is the concepts behind it though, there are many little things that are thought provoking and interesting which come together to be much scarier than the main body of the piece. However the cast and crew come together to create some genuine shocks besides the predictable (cat jumping out closet, loud noises in dark place) which burst through the screen to cause a few jumps and there are a few pretty freaky set pieces. There are a couple of sequences that are genuinely chilling that play on the audience expectations and are displayed with pace and tension. The chase/stalk/scream/kill sequences are all suitably relentless and there are some unique and inventive death sequences. As the film progresses it becomes scarier culminating with a pretty brutal and edge of your seat final act which plays out the history behind the house which is suitably horrific/upsetting and then a gritty fight for survival that forms as a satisfyingly chilling conclusion to it all.

The Grudge has often been labelled by critics as The Ring’s cheap cousin - but I could not agree less, I personally thought that The Ring was one of the most inherently silly and ridiculously pretentious pieces of film making I had ever seen. There wasn’t one moment when I didn’t believe what was happening in The Grudge, there isn’t one unintentional laugh and the whole thing is serious enough to gracefully leap over the usual horror movie pit falls. Because of Shimizu brilliant crafting of foreboding the movie never reaches the point of ridicule and the story is complicated enough to keep your mind off some of its flaws - even a meowing youngster seems chilling when it should be laughable. The whole thing is Imaginative and Intense enough to warrant at least one viewing and even non horror fans should find something interesting in it.

Summary: An intellegent and scary modern J horror