– Customer review on 15/06/2009

Gripping, unrelenting, and nerve shattering all at once, as it is with the movies sequel. Another amazing installment from the master Japanese film director Takashi Shimuzu.
All of the films characters fall perfectly into place, as the the powerful curse of the evil spirit Kayako Saeki overpowers anyone that enters its territory, known as the haunted Saeki family's home. Definitely a must-see for anyone who loved The Ring.
As the films powerful and complex plot unwinds into something both unexpected and more dark than its audience could have ever imagined, secrets of the story of innocent mother and wife Kayako Saeki's death demonstrate all at once leaving the audience gaping with shocked.
This film will definitely make you jump and have you on the edge of your seat, as the dark spirits from the film seem to be all around you. You can never escape the curse...
The Grudge displays its horror more better than any other movie I've viewed. You'll regret it if you don't watch it...

– Customer review on 22/06/2007

This is a very scary horror. Sarah Mechell Gallar does a great job. About a house i Japan that is haunted but there is actually a human/monster living in her sealing of the house that she looks after the old ladly. She trys to burn the house down but to no sucess. He boyfrend is hot in this movie.

– Customer review on 20/06/2007

Karen (Sarah Michelle Gellar), an exchange student in Japan who is just beginning to do some social work, is sent to aid an elderly semi-catatonic woman, Emma (Grace Zabriskie), after her previous caretaker, Yoko (Yoko Maki), disappears. Karen soon learns that something is not right in Emma's home, and she attempts to "see how deep the rabbit hole goes".

Maybe it's a delayed influence from the success of M. Night Shyamalan's films, but slower-paced, understated horror films are a recent trend. In some cases, such as Hide and Seek (2005), the approach works remarkably well, and in others, such as White Noise (2005), the pacing tends to kill the film. I didn't like The Grudge quite as much as Hide and Seek, but this is still a very good film--it earns a 9 out of 10 from me.

The Grudge has a couple significant differences from other recent examples of that trend, however. One, it is well known that this is a remake based on the Japanese film series that began with Ju-On (2000) (in particular, it's extremely close to the first half of Ju-On: The Grudge, aka Ju-On 3, from 2003). Two, as with many Japanese horror films, the slower pacing here isn't so much in the realm of realist drama as with surrealism. As is also the case with a large percentage of European horror, The Grudge should be looked at more as a filmed nightmare.

Director Takashi Shimizu, also the director of the five Japanese entries in the Ju-On series to date (the fifth is currently in production), and writer Stephen Susco have largely dispensed with linearity and are not overly concerned with logic or plot holes when it comes to the horror behind the story. The idea instead is to present a dreamlike sequence of scenes, with dream logic, where the focus is atmosphere, creepiness, the uncanny, and for many viewers--scares. How well the film works for you will largely depend on how well you can adapt yourself to, or are used to, this different approach to film-making (although admittedly, some of the seeming gaps are filled in by previous entries in the Ju-On series). Traditionally, American audiences consider as flaws leaving plot threads hanging and abandoning "rules" for the "monster". A more poetic, metaphorical, surreal approach to film isn't yet accepted by the mainstream in the U.S.

However, even if you're not used to it, it's worth trying to suspend your normal preconceptions about films and give The Grudge a shot. This is a well written, well directed, well acted film, filled with unusual properties, such as the story interweaving a large number of "main characters" (which is done better here than the more episodic Ju-On 3), good cinematography, subtle production design touches (check out Gellar's clothes, which match the color and texture of the exterior of Emma's house, when Gellar first approaches), and beautifully effective horror material.

Even though it is more slowly paced that your average horror film of the past, the pacing usually enhances the eeriness, and there is no shortage of bizarre events to keep horror fans entertained. The supernatural premise of the film is absorbing, and based on interviews on the DVD with Shimizu, have prodded me to pay more attention to Japanese beliefs and folklore. Although the most interesting subtexts would probably arise with a more intimate knowledge of Japanese culture, it's interesting to ponder why so many Japanese horror films feature scary children and adults who look like scary children.

I subtracted one point for the film slightly veering into clichéd mystery/thriller territory with a "here's what really happened" flashback, but even that was fairly well done, and otherwise, this would have been a 10 out of 10.

Now that I've said all of the above, let me finish with a mini-rant: It's not that I'm anti-remake, but it is ridiculous that U.S. distributors and studios feel that we need remakes of foreign films to make them appropriate for consumption. The original versions of these films should just be playing in U.S. theaters in wide release. There is no need to present an almost identical film but just substituting white American actors for non-white or foreign actors. Yes, The Grudge is a fine film, but ultimately, I'd rather see something original using this talent, and be treated to the latest foreign horror films--not just Japanese, but also Indian, Spanish, Chinese, etc.--at my multiplex. In the hope that someone with some pull at the studios reads this, it is also more cost-effective to do this, as (1) you can completely avoid production costs, and simply make domestic distribution deals from which you receive profit, and (2) you can make money off of fans like myself who otherwise pick up the foreign film DVDs in foreign manufactured or even bootleg versions.

– Customer review on 19/06/2007

this movie has a very good plot and storyline. the scary bits in this movie was well executed.the grudge is good but i think it could be better but yeah as they said it does rely on the soundtrack, but its a reall good movie for me


i recommend this t0 all the thriller/horror fanatics you'll love this movie!! 5/5 for mme!!

– Customer review on 14/04/2007

The normal façade of a modest house in Tokyo belies the hidden terror within. It is possessed by a violent plague that destroys the lives of everyone who enters. Known as The Grudge, this curse causes its victims to die in the grip of a powerful rage. Those who are fatally afflicted by the curse die and a new curse is born--passed like a virus to all those who enter the house in an endless, growing chain of horror. Karen is an exchange student studying social work in Japan who innocently agrees to cover for a nurse who didn't show up for work. When she enters the assigned home, she discovers an elderly American woman, Emma, who is lost in a catatonic state while the rest of the house appears deserted and disheveled. As she is tending to the stricken old woman, Karen hears scratching sounds from upstairs. When she investigates, she is faced with a supernatural horror more frightening than she could ever imagine. Within this house, a chain of terror has been set in motion resulting from a terrifying evil that was born years before. As more people die, Karen is pulled into the cycle of horror and learns the secret of the vengeful curse that has taken root in this house. Now she must stop it before it's too late.

– Customer review on 21/03/2007

Whenever someone dies in a powerful grip of rage, a curse is left behind and haunts the area and whoever comes across it. So says "The Grudge," anyway, the latest American remake of a stylish substance-free Japanese horror film starring paper plate actress Sarah Michelle Gellar, as Karen, an American homecare nurse living in Tokyo with her boyfriend, Doug (Jason Behr).

The first thing that came to my mind, and maybe this is because I'm such a horrible, horrible person, is that if it's true that when someone dies in a state of rage or panic or whatever, a curse is left behind -- especially in Japan of all places -- you'd think our dropping of two nuclear bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki would have left a lot of house attics with uninvited long-haired guests, staggering back and forth and making a lot of clicking noises.

End of digression.

"The Grudge" is Takashi Shimizu's immediate remake of his original 2004 Japanese version, "Ju-On," unseen by me but very similar according to my trusted critics. I have read about culture differences and how American influences don't make good Japanese horror films. But that's all beating around the bush. Bad concepts don't make good Japanese horror films.

Karen has been assigned to take care of an elderly woman named Emma (Grace Zabriskie) currently occupying the cursed the house while her son, Matthew (William Mapother), and his wife, Jennifer (Clea DuVall) are at work during the day. Emma serves the important purpose of being that character who doesn't talk due to her medical condition, but stares in absolute horror at the ceiling until whoever is with her figures out that a ghost is hovering above. It usually takes a long time before someone notices the ghost and as a result - many corpses begin piling up in a house that for some reason does not have a reputation for killing its many inhabitants.

This is a standard, formulaic story in that a house is haunted, characters look disturbed only because there's an eerie soundtrack playing in the background. and everything happens at night. Many characters go into the house, not so many come out.

It's not that I'm against standard ghost flicks. I thoroughly enjoyed "The Ring" and anticipate the sequel. But that movie (if not the plot) had a logical, linear sequence. "The Grudge" gets stuck in a circular loop plagued by a pattern that utilizes flashbacks too complicated for its own good. A scene would start, a ghost would appear, a character would either live or die, and then it starts all over again without advancing the story. Maybe because there is no story, but still, not a reason to stall and tempt our patience.

To further explain, at about the midway point a ghost stalks every member of a particular family, and in some of these cases the movie is effective at being scary. Take for example the scene where we see the ghost materialize through the floor on security camera footage, and the time when she disguises herself as an already dead character to enter a building and seconds later ring the doorbell of an occupant several floors up. Then she appears from underneath someone's bed sheets and the audience gets a kick out of it. But then she does it again, and again, and again�all while Karen explores the mystery of the killing-house and meets with a detective (Ryo Ishibashi) who may or may not have something to tell us later on about the history of the house.

Sarah Michelle Gellar is no stranger to horror movies, but not even her long tenure on "Buffy" has given her enough convincible feature-length credibility to hold a major role in this genre. I enjoyed her more when she got tossed off the second-story balcony of the sorority house in "Scream 2," and when she got sliced up like a fish in "I Know What You Did Last Summer." No such luck in this film where she actually survives at least until the end. (Not a spoiler.)

The movie concludes with one of those non-resolute endings that begs for speculation at the drinking table�that is, considering the conversation isn't about how disappointing the movie is. Not just disappointing, but boring�and movies with raging ghosts should never be boring. But Shimizu pulls it off so well that at times a ghost would appear in a mirror or a shadow would fly across the frame and the theater audience wouldn't react, having seen the thing so many times in previous scenes.

– Customer review on 05/02/2007

this film has potential to be good - but really, wasn't pulled off at all well! I feel it relys on scary music to make up for the completely un-scary plot line! If you had put this movie to the soundtrack of the entertainer - it would just be hilarious! The plot just doesn't really make sense - a lot of people walk into a house 'cue scary music' and feel themselves strangely drawn to the cupboard on the second floor (no apparent reason!)- where surprise surprise - they're murdered. Unless you harbor particular fears about small asian children - this just isn't a scary movie

– Customer review on 27/01/2007

This is a scary, creepy movie!! After 2 years since watching it I still get the creeps! It is quite different from your run of the mill horror movie, it is a remake of an old Japenese version starring Sarah Michelle Geller and it is very well done. I enjoyed it, if you enjoy a good scary movie this one is for you!

– Customer review on 04/01/2007

The Grudge is another Japanese remake of a film like the ring. It is pretty good and quite unnerving in some places but the story line is a little predictable in a few places. Sarah Michelle Gellar convincingly plays the role of the central female protagonist. Give it a look.

– Customer review on 03/01/2007

this is a pretty good movie, filled with lots of scenes that make you jump! sarah michelle gellar stars in this movie, and plays the role of a lady who moves into a house in japan to look after a woman. man the scene with the girl with her jaw missing really gave me the creeps! good film, pretty scary!