The Grudge (2004) Movie Info
| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Movie Name | The Grudge (2004) |
| Original Title | The Grudge |
| Also Known As | Ju-On: The Grudge (U.S. remake) |
| Director | Takashi Shimizu |
| Screenplay Writer | Stephen Susco |
| Story By | Based on Ju-On by Takashi Shimizu |
| Based on Novel by | — |
| Producer(s) | Sam Raimi, Robert Tapert, Takashige Ichise |
| Executive Producer(s) | Nathan Kahane, Joe Drake |
| Lead Actors | Sarah Michelle Gellar |
| Cast | Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jason Behr, Clea DuVall, Bill Pullman, KaDee Strickland |
| Genre | Horror |
| Subgenre | Supernatural Horror, Ghost Horror |
| Release Date | October 22, 2004 (United States) |
| Runtime / Duration | 1h 31m (91 minutes) |
| Budget | ~$10 million |
| Box Office (Worldwide) | ~$187.3 million |
| Language | English, Japanese |
| Country | United States, Japan |
| Production Company | Ghost House Pictures, Senator International |
| Distributor | Columbia Pictures |
| Filming Locations | Tokyo, Japan |
| Music By | Christopher Young |
| Cinematography | Hideo Yamamoto |
| Edited By | Jeff Betancourt |
| Production Design | Iwao Saitô |
| Costume Design | Mari-An Ceo |
| Special Effects | Practical ghost makeup, visual effects |
| MPAA Rating | PG-13 |
| Aspect Ratio | 1.85:1 |
| Sound Mix | Dolby Digital |
| Format | Color |
| Themes | Curse, vengeance, trauma, supernatural contagion |
| Setting | Haunted house in Tokyo, Japan |
| Notable Trivia | Directed by the same filmmaker behind the original Japanese Ju-On films |
| Critical Reception | Mixed reviews but highly successful commercially |
| Home Media | VHS, DVD, Blu-ray, 4K UHD |
| Sequels / Franchise | Spawned multiple sequels and reboots |
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A young woman goes to Tokyo to find her sister, a woman who apparently went mad, killed her boyfriend and tried to burn down a house she thought evil. What she doesn’t know is the evil that lives there is spreading and looking for new victims.
I really loved The Grudge and fully expected to love the sequel, because more of the same would have been fine with me, or so I thought. The truth is, there were some hitches. I still think it’s a good movie and by no means did I not enjoy it, but I was still disappointed. I don’t know if I can really blame that on the filmmakers, though. There were some shortcomings, but maybe the biggest was that it’s hard to scare someone with the same thing you scared them with before. A good story is a good story, but scary is far more of a challenge, that’s why horror is the epitome of entertainment.
The thing about The Grudge 2 is that it’s got three distinct and nearly unrelated storylines running through it, tied together only by the curse itself. This worked great for Pulp Fiction, because the characters were filled with depth and realism, and it was a long movie that left plenty of time for the dialog and action to endear the audience to every character in the film so that when there was a conflict, we were torn as to who to root for. We cared about them all.
Not so in The Grudge 2. Most the characters are merely victims, introduced just so we can see them terrorized and exterminated. To say it was hard to care would be an understatement. Maybe someone really compassionate and empathic would care some, but not because of anything in the movie, just a general love for all life. A Buddhist might, I guess. Several times the movie dragged, not because it was so long between scary stuff, it really wasn’t, the scary was paced well. The dragging had to do with me not giving a tinker’s damn about the humans onscreen.
With the exception of Amber Tamblyn, who plays the sister of Sarah Michelle Gellar’s character, it would be a struggle for me to even name more than a couple others, and there were several. Even she could be completely summed up in a couple sentences. Just flat, that’s where this flick went wrong.
The entire film relied on the scary-as-hell images that made the original so damn creepy. The ghosts, while not that unique in Asian horror, were alien to most of us. Dripping with malice and impossible to really identify with, just a crawling, mindless evil that jarred us left and right. It was damn good stuff.
The truth is, so was the first. The characters in it weren’t exactly magnificent, the entire movie hinged on weirdness and creepiness, and the complex story just came along to justify it all. I loved it, too. It worked and I had nary a complaint, it’s really one of my favorite horror flicks of recent years.
But since then, having seen The Grudge several times, I’m not as sensitive. It’s still creepy as hell, this movie is chock-fucking-full of image after image of truly terrible action. I won’t even insinuate they weren’t beautifully evil, the milk jug and the darkroom come to mind, both truly great. I really don‘t know if it would even be possible for a sequel to have even half the effect that the original had on me. In fact, I’d guess it’s not. So anyone reading this and getting the impression I’m bashing it, I’m really not.
However, I did feel a weird unease as I stepped into my darkened house after watching, and it’s hard for me to point a finger or blame anyone involved in making this movie, it’s not that they let me down, I’m just not as sensitive. It really would have to have been turned up a couple more notches to get to me.
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