Ju-on: The Grudge guest movie review

by Chris and Kris   ⋅   November 10, 2003   ⋅   Comment now   ⋅    RSS

This was a review from Lee back when we used to write for Film Rotation. We are reprinting it here for the first time. Give it up for Lee!

From the land that seems pre-occupied with death, ghosts and the supernatural, (not necessarily in that order) comes another bit of heart stopping scare – “Juon: the Grudge” from director Takeshi Shimizu. Featuring popular film actress Megumi Okina, “Juon: The Grudge” brings the concept of the classic Haunted House and puts it on a more personal level.

The story centers about an apparently normal looking house in the middle of a residential district. Social Worker volunteer Rika (Okina Megumi) is sent to the house to look in on the elderly woman who lives there. She notices the door to the house unlocked and the inside trashed with food wrappers and objects. Peering into the house, she notices a tapping at the fusuma (sliding door) inside the house and finds the elderly woman lying face down. She helps the elderly lady wash up (while the lady mumbles to herself in incoherent phrases) and starts to clean the house. In the middle of cleaning, Rika hears a tapping sound coming from a closet that has been taped shut. With fingers shaking, she slowly undoes the tape and as she does so realizes that she and the elderly woman may not be the only people in the house. Upon opening the closet, she is relieved to see that there is just a cat. Glancing back at the closet a second time, she freezes and takes a couple of steps back – A boy, huddled in the corner stares straight at her. The house, as it is slowly revealed, has a history of it’s own. The head of the house murdered his family and who eventually turns up dead. The vengeful spirits of those murdered haunt the house and drive each subsequent inhabitants of the house and every person who comes in contact with the house to their deaths. They in turn become part of the growing number of spirits that call this house home.

This may seem like a lot of plot give-a-way but be assured that it is not as all this happens in the first 10 minutes of the movie. For those who love to be freaked out, be prepared to be scared as the scares are plenty. While some do come in the form of ‘in your face’ scream scares, the most freaky and disturbing scares come in a more subtle fashion that make the hairs on your neck stand - those scenes in which you start to realize that something is not right and especially when you notice that face in the background…

Director Shimizu decided to take a very interesting approach regarding the timeline of the movie. “Juon: The Grudge” is broken down into little vignettes of 10-15 minutes with each vignette centering around one character in the film. Time do not travel quite so literally in this movie as some vignettes overlap each other and some take place years into the future while others take place in the past. Most viewers will get lost in the beginning and that’s okay as it will (hopefully) come together somewhat in the end. I do recommend watching the movie through first and a second time to catch all the little things that add to the movie (such as back ground voices and little sub-plots and how each connects to each other).

As each character is given a short vignette each (and some are very short), they aren’t fleshed out and not really deep characters. They are basically there to die and propel the central story along and as such you will most likely find yourself wondering how each character will die more so than really caring about the character themselves.

For those of you who are totally lost when watching this movie as timelines overlap and for those of you frustrated because you wanted more insight into the characters, you will be happy to know that “Juon: The Grudge” is infact part 3 of the series. Previous “Juon” and “Juon 2” were both made for TV movies with part 1 centering on the first inhabitants of the house and part 2 centering on the next family to move into the house. Currently released in Japan this year came the sequel “Juon 2” (which by the other 3 would put this at number 4) in which a documentary crew goes to the house - by then alleged to be haunted. They proceed to do the documentary highlight and well; you basically get the idea where that story is going.

The story of the classic haunted house is by no means any thing new. But by down playing the whole open the door and be surprised by a ghost flying into your face bit, Shimizu has managed to put together a film that is indeed “Scarier than anything that you have seen”. You thought “Ringu” was scary? You ain’t seen nothing yet.
Also “Juon: The Grudge” is rumored to be considered for an adaptation for the English market. We’ll just have to wait and see how that goes. I hope it’s better than the “The Ring”. The adaptation of that movie (”Ringu”) was okay but the original was sooooooo much better. =)

About the Author:

Lee Sugimoto enjoys films of all kinds, whether horror, comedy, adventure, or romance. He’s a karaoke fiend and a fan of Gundam. Lee’s the uber cool cat who married Kris and Chris.