THE GRUDGE is that annoying blend of genuine scares and really, really dumb people. Sure, in order for most horror films to work, the principals have to be of the less than Einstein variety, lest they run screaming from the nasty whatever and end the proceedings in reel one. One, therefore, makes allowances, but suspension of disbelief, or even goodwill can only be stretched so far before one just wants to begin to make sport of the victims before, after, and most of all during the unholy fate that awaits them.
The lynchpin story is that of Karen (Sarah Michelle Gellar), an exchange student in need of a social work credit. Dispatched by her school to help with a semi-catatonic woman, Emma,(Grace Zabriskie), she is confronted with a messy house, a strange little boy with a weirdly intense stare, and a missing family, all but Emma, that is. Shes crawling on the floor of her bedroom, silent, but agitated, or as agitated as the semi-catatonic can become. Something awful, we will shortly learn, has happened and happened more than once. The grudge of the title, after all, refers to the premise of the film, that when someone dies in great anger or sorrow, that emotion lingers on in very unpleasant ways.
A remake of the Japanese film of the same name (JU-ON in Japanese) adapted by Stephen Susco, and boasting the same director, Takashi Shimizu, and setting, Tokyo, it is rife with atmospheric tensions as one after another, people visit a haunted house and leave with more than just a bad case of the jitters. The ghosts in this house follow their visitors no matter where they go and when theyve spooked them enough, take them out of this plane of existence in disconcerting ways that dont follow the rules of this universe. That, of course, is whats so undeniably creepy, as the phantoms assume corporeal form, more or less, while not being subject to the laws of physics, or the time-space continuum. Past and present bump into each other as this complex tale of three couples unwind. Shimizu uses music to set cues, but its his camera work that does the trick, focusing on the back of a neck, or a closed door, the expectation of something unpleasant a palpable certainty. By the time a ghost appears, its almost a relief. He even creates something ominous, in a completely different sense, when an American newly arrived in the Land of the Rising Sun and a stranger to the language is confronted by a shelf of goods in a Japanese grocery store.
On the other hand, the people of the film do very odd things, and Im not talking just about the penchant they have for going back to the house where awful things happen. Even after finding out what the deal is for anyone crossing the threshold. Things like Karen going to visit a widow out of the blue and the woman not only buzzing her in, but sharing her mementos with this total stranger. It doesnt help that Gellar is wooden even in the throes of hysteria, or that Jason Behr, who plays her boyfriend, is only slightly less so.
THE GRUDGE has the weirdly random disconnect of a dreamscape. The only problem is that the living are so annoyingly dense, rooting for them is out of the question. Perhaps thats what Shimizu or Susco had in mind, but I wouldnt bet on it.
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