Ju-on: The Grudge

Yeah. True horror is an overrated/over-hyped Japanese flick in which a naked little boy covered in talcum powder runs around a house and his true moment of terror is when he bulges his eyes and makes a very loud "Mroooooooooooowwww!!!!!!" sound effect. Oh my god, it was so scary, I had a heart attack and had to be rushed to the hospital for a heart transplant. OK let's be serious now. I, like many and their dog, saw this before its American counterpart was released. I was hoping I was going to be in for a good ghost story, when instead I was in for a movie about people being scared by the aforementioned naked talcum powder drenched kid and some girl with bad hair who makes some belching noise to threaten her victims. Who'd have known people were so easily scared? There isn't much of a plot to speak of, except people go in a house and die by these two "ghosts". There was one scary part, and that was when the woman got pulled under the sheets, but that was done way better (and not so cheaply) in its American remake. The film's atmosphere sucks too- why is everything so light??? The American remake is an improvement as you can see they achieved the scares the original didn't. Way better creepy/brooding atmosphere, more convincing ghost story, etc. Save your money on this dreck.

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Before the film started, I read some quotes from famous American directors praising the Grudge and calling it one of the most frightening films of all time. I was a little nervous about seeing it, but excited that it had gotten such positive attention from filmmakers. That moment before the film started was much more frightening than anything in the actual film. To be generous, I have to say that some of the attempts to scare the audience are innovative. Sadly, nothing here is scary. I had a really hard time caring and was confused by the disjointed and tangential structure of the film. Sometimes the lack of logic in a horror film can work it's benefit. Not the case here. Seeing this film reminded me of why I hate formulaic slasher films. sure, there are some interesting things here, but nothing really gells. I love Asian horror films in general, but this seemed slight compared to the films of Miike, Nakata, K. Kurosawa and the Pang brothers which are getting easier to find in neighborhood video stores.

After watching this film, i was breathless. Needless to say, too scared to go p***. Ju-on is a horror movie that stands out above other western horros. Not since The Ring (original Japanese version) has any other horror flicks cause so much tension and screams in theatres. The reason it is so much different from American horror films, is that it uses one-of-a-kind sound effects, and the now famous 'slow and silent' tempo that causes the eerie feel to the movie. Most horror movie goers prefer watching big-breasted blondes running around screaming at the top of her lungs, whilst a mad knife weilding man chases her. That's where the ratings fall. Japan has established itself for being the 'land of horror film'. And Ju-on is no exception in living up to the standard. Sam Raimi has remarked this film as scary. From a director of his calibre making such remarks to ASIAN films, you know there's something coming up. The movie is a sequence of short stories, all interrelated. Which makes it good as it keeps audiences trying to figure out what's going on, and at the same time scaring the sh*t out of them. The films starts out slow, and proceeds with the same rythym throughout. I cannot possibly describe the "scream" scenes, as it will largely spoil the fun of watching it. But one thing guranteed, GET READY.

At some of my kid's birthday parties there have been twenty or thirty children running around in poorly applied body/face paint and I've not once been driven hysterical with fear. And there have got to be at least thirty phones at the office where I work—twice that amount if you include mobiles—but I've never filled my pants when they've rung (thank heavens!). If, like me, you are not in the least bit perturbed by small, pale boys with black paint around their eyes or a telephone's ring-tone, then don't be surprised if you find Ju-on: The Grudge more than just a little disappointing. Frights are limited to the aforementioned phone-calls and the little lad popping up unexpectedly, plus the occasional appearance of his equally un-scary mother who croaks like a frog whilst crawling very slowly downstairs on her belly. Perhaps, to a Japanese person well versed in the Ju-on legend, all this might seem like seriously scary stuff, but I was bored rigid, with matters made even more irksome by the film's excruciatingly slow pace and a pointless fractured time-line that ensured maximum confusion. Quite what Sam Raimi saw in this to make him want to fund a remake I'll never know...

The film is based on an old Japanese which gives the film a certain authenticity it is an excellent horror and although there is no real ending this is because the film was originally made for Japanese viewers and they do not like a conventional ending to a film as the Americans and the British do. This is not because of the directors inability to write a proper ending. The ending is left to your imagination which i think is a good thing. The film involves many changes in time which gives the film an interesting feel and focuses more on the story than on the special effects like its American counterpart.

I have recently seen this film and as a scary movie it is very solid. The plot is sometimes confusing but the shocks are genuine and will have you hiding under your sofa several times. The horror element relies on shocks and make-up effects as opposed to loads of gore and CGI (however there is a smattering of this). Defenitely one of the best Asian horror films since 'The Eye' and would be difficult to keep its authenticity if remade in America. The music is atmospheric, reminiscent of the Resident Evil Games and adds to the tension running through the film. I am still unsure to why the boy, mother and father haunt/kill anyone entering the house.....wasn't really explained very well but leave your critical reasoning aside when watching it and enjoy the production for what it is a roller-coaster ride of jumps and scares.

Well? Everyone raved over this film like they raved over Ringu, so I should've known better. But I never learn. Ringu was a failure because of its complete lack of imagination and its degeneration into an endless, pointless detective story, which meant that when resolution finally came it was all explained away and any impact was totally dissipated. Well they didn't make the same mistakes in Ju-On?well except for the lack of imagination. But along with that, they made an entire no swath of mistakes! A Ju-On is a type of curse, a spirit of vengeance that haunts a place when the spirit has died in the midst of a great rage. Whoever comes into contact with the Ju-On, will be destroyed by it. Thus we have a house, and we have various stories of people who come into contact with the house that contains the Ju-On. This should have been horrifying and freaky and disturbing, but at every turn, they succeeded in diminishing it to nothing. For a starters, we never get to know ANY of the characters, we meet them, and 5 minutes later they are being terrorised by the spirits. They are less than two dimensional characters, and I am not able to just accept dumb bad character writing like most idiot viewers. The key to making your audience feel fear and anxiety is to get them involved in the characters. They get an F for that one. Because of its fragmented style, the narrative is totally about the spirits and the evil they perform. Thus there is no actual plot, which should allow for some great horror sequences and very little boredom. But after you've seen the first 4 incidents, you realise that they are all exactly the same with little to nor variation and thus you sit bored for the rest of the film waiting to see if they do something interesting. The one time they do actually try something different, it makes to little sense and doesn't seem to be from the same film and involves a character who you never ever found out what happened to him, thus making it irritating and very much not interesting. So there is no imagination in the horror sequences, they get an F for that one too. And oh wow, look , it moves back and forth in time? so you don't actually really know what is going on half the time and have to stop and try and figure it all out, which, in a film that is meant to be a continuous driving horror fest, is not a good thing. It adds very little to the film and increases the irritation factor. They are remaking this one for the western world as I type. I believe that this one could actually be improved by Hollywood, as they will enforce certain narrative aspects and imaginative big budget horror sequences, which while not necessarily the best kind of horror, is a hell of a lot better than any of the trash that occurs in this version.