Oct 122003
 
three reels

A vicious murder curses a house.  Anyone who enters it afterward dies.

I expected Ju-On: The Grudge to be more frightening and visually compelling than its video prequels (see my Ju-On 1 & 2 review).  This was a big screen release with a bigger budget, but it is a sequel, and like most sequels, it just can’t match the excitement and originality of the first.  Starting roughly five years after the events of Ju-On, Ju-On: The Grudge once again presents a series of vignettes, each showing how someone who enters the cursed house dies.  But where the curse is spread from one victim to the next in the first two films, here, it always goes back to the first three ghosts.  Also, the ghosts now attempt to fool their victims, loosing the mindless inevitability I loved in Ju-On.  Additionally, the ghosts are seen too often (the crawling ghost which is so creepy in the first film where it shows up once appears over and over in this one, diluting its impact) and the deaths are far less bloody, producing a less shocking film.

Perhaps someone who hasn’t seen the original films will enjoy this film more than I,  particularly because it acts as if the original crime is a mystery to the audience and reveals it with great fanfare.  If you can’t find those first films, I do recommend renting this one, but if you have the option, see Ju-On 1 & 2 instead.