The Grudge (2003)
Posted on September 18, 2005
Filed Under Asian movies, Ghosts, Series
The international success of Hideo Nakata’s Ring led to a frenzied search - both in Hollywood and in Asia - to find the next international “J-horror” (as it’s doomed to be known) success. The unlikely candidate appears to have been the Ju-On series, aka The Grudge, which already exists in five screen versions already - two Japanese TV movies, two Japanese feature films and an American remake, with an American remake sequel on the way. Having only seen the first Japanese movie, I can’t really offer any comparison as to what’s the best, but on this evidence alone I can’t really say that the whole Grudge industry fills me with much enthusiasm. The recent US remake, starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, was extensively (and rather cynically) promoted as being the “next Ring”, even down to the spooky girl with long dark hair on the posters, and the UK DVD release of the first Japanese film has a rather odd quote from The Metro on the back, claiming the film “scares the socks of The Ring”, which I can only assume is a typo. Hell, you can even buy the Japanese DVD in Woolworths - even Ring didn’t get that treatment, so someone’s obviously banking on making a lot of money out of this series.
I can only assume that the Grudge hype is born more out of the fact that it’s a spooky Japanese horror film rather than anything to do with the film itself. It’s got quite a clever twist; it’s a haunted house movie, but if you come into contact with the house, the ghosts can get you anywhere, even after you’ve left the building. The film is almost an anthology movie, telling the various, intertwining stories of people who become involved in the house (the scene of several nasty murders), from a volunteer social worker to the policemen investigating the strange goings on. I’m all for a non-linear narrative, but the one that director Shimizu Takashi employs here hinders rather than helps the story. The movie is divided into segments each telling the story of a different character, and so the film’s time frame shifts all over the place; unfortunately, the characters are not really interesting enough to warrant this exclusive treatment, and in some cases are utterly interchangeable. It might have been more worthwhile to show us perhaps a day / week / month in the house and all the various comings and goings in that time, as at least it could have lent the film some Ring-style ‘race against time’ pacing; instead, the confusing timeframe saps any energy out of the story, dragging it down.
Even worse, it all looks so sterile. At least when you watch a Vincent Price haunted house movie you get some impressive interiors, but the Grudge house is just painfully dull to watch, with some of the most pedestrian lighting I’ve ever seen. The ghosts add some momentary excitement, but even they are sloppily inconsistent: in the shadows, in full view, going down corridors, passing through walls… Maybe it’s meant to be enigmatic but it feels sloppily thought out. The Grudge may be many things, but it’s not a strong enough film to support an international franchise. The Ring saga may have been milked to death, but at least it had a knockout origin - this doesn’t. And like Hideo Nakata, Shimizu Takashi is starting to look like a one-trick pony; he’s helmed (in various capacities) all the incarnations of this film so far, and precious little else. The Grudge has had premier league status conferred upon it, but it doesn’t feel like the start of a phenomenon - it’s just dull.
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