Karen (Sarah Michelle Gellar) is a social worker, in Japan with her boyfriend (Jason Behr) on a cultural exchange. One day they ask her to replace one of her colleagues who suddenly disappeared, visiting an elderly lady in a catatonic state. In that house, Karen, apart from the old woman, finds none of the relatives but only a sinister-looking child and a strange presence with long black hair.. After entering that house, little does she know that she will have to cope with a terrible curse that leaves no one she meets alive; she will be haunted by terrifying visions that will drive her to search for answers, discovering chilling truths. All in a race against time for a path to salvation....
This film is the American remake of the Japanese film "Ju-on," but unlike the usual remakes it has an extra edge, attributable in part to the fact that the director, Takashi Shimizu, has not changed. Therefore, it was possible to bring to life a new film, with the addition of Western elements (the blood, the ceiling jaw, etc.), without completely losing the charm and suspense typical of Oriental films, but "Ju-on" only served as a cue to create a new story, which is to be commended given the lack of imagination of Americans in this recent period. In terms of quality, "The Grudge" is also clearly superior in effects and set design.
The Grudge is what is technically called a shocker. Shimizu aims to be scary, but more importantly he aims to never give the viewer time to recover from the fright he has just taken. As a function of this, the film does not have a linear structure, something that would have forced the author and screenwriter into some obligatory narrative transitions necessary for story development: instead, the director takes advantage of the easy ploy of the sudden time jump to flesh out a dense series of emotional climaxes triggered by the narrative engine of the cursed house alone.
Review by Ikariaki
