Plot: An American nurse (Sarah Michelle Gellar) who is living and working in Tokyo is exposed to a mysterious curse, one that locks a person in a powerful rage before claiming their lives and going to the next victim.
Review: This is one the earlier Japanese remakes and I very much enjoyed this film.
I did the like the film's plot in terms of the house itself, the curse and the history of the family and the reason behind the curse. But there are many different characters, all with different stories that connect to the house and the curse itself so I found it initially difficult to follow when I first watched it.
As I mentioned just now, there are a lot of different characters so I'll go through some of them very quickly. I do think the acting was good. Nothing really weak, but nothing really overly impressive either. Sarah Michelle Gellar plays Karen, who is the main protagonist. I like Sarah Michelle Gellar and I think she did a fine job with what she was given. Jason Behr plays Karen's boyfriend, Doug and I think that and Gellar had good chemistry between the two of them. Grace Zabiskrie plays Emma, Matthew's mother who suffers from dementia. I think she was great in the role. Emma speaks very little and her facial expressions are fantastic. Yuya Ozeki plays Toshio, the eight-year-old boy who haunts his victims. Ozeki is terrifying in this. His facial expressions and the way he moves is very creepy and eery. There are other several characters, including Matthew's sister, a detective and several others. But I honestly didn't care for the rest of them so I don't want to bother going through them all. But I will say that everyone in this cast did a fine job.
I think the film's ending was great. I didn't really expect it when I first watched it, but I like the twist because it gives the opening to new films to being, which has been done since.
As for the scares, I do think that the majority of the scares rely on Ozeki's performance and his mother. They provide a good portion of the scares and they do them very well. It's not really something that will have you on the edge of your seat but might give you a jump or two depending on how you react to horror movies.
I did compare this movie to The Ring when I first saw it. I found The Ring to be just as confusing plot wise but The Ring is scarier to me and will make you jump more.
I think The Grudge is a suspenseful, entertaining and fun horror movie. And it's also one of the better Japanese remakes out of all of the ones I've seen.
Rating: 3.5/5
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