PopHorror Let's Get Scared
I remember seeing the trailer and TV spots for The Grudge when it was released and told my girlfriend (who is now my wife) that it just looked OK. I told her that it was probably just another crappy PG-13 rated remake of a superior Japanese film and that I didn’t really care anything about seeing it. About a week later we were bored and ended up going to see it one Sunday afternoon because there wasn’t anything else going on. My expectations were mighty low, and I didn’t expect to enjoy it mostly because I didn’t think that it would be scary at all.
So, were my assumptions correct? Should we have skipped it and gone with our alternate plan for the day and just stayed home playing Playstation 2 games to alleviate our boredom?
Keep reading to find out…
Synopsis
The spirits of a murdered woman and her son (as well as his cat) stalk and kill anyone unfortunate enough to enter the house where their deaths occurred)
As I implied earlier, The Grudge is the American remake of the Japanese horror film Ju-On: The Grudge from 2002 and features some of the same people that were involved with the original. Remember when I said that I didn’t think it would be scary? I was wrong. Very, very wrong.
I’ll admit that it scared the Hell out of me when I saw it and I had many sleepless nights for weeks afterward because I couldn’t get certain scenes from it out of my mind. As a matter of fact, it was the first movie to truly scare me for years and to this day it still bothers me whenever I think about it occasionally (which is usually late at night when I’m trying to go to sleep and I end up creeping myself out as a result). It’s the last movie that I have seen that has managed to actually scare me, and I know that I am not alone as I know a lot of other people that it terrified as well.
In addition to being legitimately scary and creepy in general, its also just a damn good movie for a number of reasons. It’s one of those movies that I could watch repeatedly and never get tired of. The plot is simple but effective. It’s basically a haunted house movie to an extent and revolves around the spirits of a murdered woman, her son, and his cat who kill anyone who enters the house. The cool thing about it is that they can leave the house and can show up anywhere to get you, so basically you are just screwed if you ever entered the house because no matter what, they will eventually get you and there is pretty much nothing you can do about it.
Nobody can stop them, so the movie just has a terrifying and hopeless feel to it as a result. If you make the mistake of going into the house you are as good as dead, and that thought alone is terrifying enough for me (which is why I never go into strange houses anymore unless I absolutely have to).
I think that this movie has two of the creepiest horror film antagonists ever in Kayako (played by Takako Fuji, Ghost vs Alien 03, The iDol) and her son Toshio (Yuya Ozeki, Fathers, Drawing Days) as they are both extremely horrifying as they come and I certainly wouldn’t want either one of them coming after me. They can both appear wherever they want whenever they want to get you and as I said earlier there is essentially nothing you can do if they target you. Neither one of them really talk, but the noises they make are pure nightmare fuel, especially when it comes to Kayako (though Toshio’s meowing is quite unsettling in its own way as well).
Trust me when I say that you don’t want to wake up in the middle of the night with either one of standing at the foot of your bed staring at you, a recurring nightmare that I have had for years).
I also think that the living cast does a fantastic job as well. Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I Know What You Did Last Summer) does as excellent job as the main character Karen. You can’t help but like her and want her to survive the horrifying predicament that she is forced to deal with after she enters the house. The same thing can be said for Ryo Ishibashi (Audition, Parasite in Love) who plays the likable police detective Nakagawa, another character that you want to see make it out alive. Genre legend Ted Raimi (Intruder, Wishmaster) also makes an appearance, and while he doesn’t have a huge part, he’s still entertaining when he appears. Overall, I think that this movie has a strong cast, and they all do a great job bringing their respective characters to life.
The Grudge – Final Thoughts
As you can tell, I really dig The Grudge and think that it is just an awesome movie in general. It has some of the creepiest scenes I have ever seen in my life in it (that bit where Kayako comes down the steps toward the end never ceases to freak me out, and the part where she appears under the bed covers at one point scarred me for life) and they stay with you long after the movie has ended.
If you are in the mood for a well-written horror movie that has some great characters, and some legit scary moments give this film a shot. Just don’t watch it alone at night unless you’re in the mood to have a case of the willies for the rest of the evening.
