Scary Movie Update: “The Grudge”

A year or so ago I posted a list of my Top 10 All-Time Scary Movies. I now need to update that list by adding a silly little movie called The Grudge, which MLB and I made the mistake of watching on Netflix DVD late last Saturday night.

The Grudge was released last year, and is a remake of a Japanese film entitled Ju-On. It has a few recognizable actors: Bill Pullman (Independence Day), Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy the You-know-What) and Ted Raimi (Spiderman II). It was directed by Takaki Shimizu, who, as you no doubt recognize, also directed Ju-On (and Ju-On 2 and Ju-On 3 and, presumably, Ju-on-and-on). I have no idea how closely the remake tracks the original, but I can tell you that the 2004 version scored a 12 on my 1-10 creep-out scale.

The movie had two things in its favor (under the assumption that really scary things are advantages to a scary movie): (1) it violated a basic tenet of haunted house movies and (b) one of the scarier Evil Presences looked exactly like Michael Jackson. Seriously.

I must elaborate on point #1, so you’ll be prepared in case you decide to watch this movie. Haunted house movies can be very frightening (The Legend of Hell House took the #7 spot on my list) but there’s always been an unwritten rule that allowed the viewer to have a psychological bailout: the bad stuff happens only with the confines of said Haunted House. The Grudge shatters this concept like a cheap longneck upside The Rock’s head. See, the Evil Presences (think of them as disembodied Howard Deans, if that mental picture isn’t too intense for you) latch onto anyone who sets foot in their sprawling Japanese apartment, and they follow them wherever they go, even, presumably, to Minneapolis or San Antonio or some other distinctly non-Japanese destination. That’s some bad mojo. And what they do to you once they make their moves is…well, just watch a few weeks’ worth of CSI on TV and you’ll get a flavor of that action.

Anyhow, watch the movie if you dare. If nothing else, it will confirm what you suspected all along about Michael Jackson.

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3 comments

  1. A brilliant similie involving The Rock, a clever snipe at Howard Dean, and the obligatory shot at Jackson, all in one post!
    “…and they follow them wherever they go.”
    Here’s something that will make the movie a little scarier for you. That does happens in the real world. The abandoned town of Dudleytown, Connecticut has an evil reputation of inflicting long runs of sickness, accidents, and “bad luck” to thrill seekers and ghost hunters who go looking for supernatural manifestations.
    I guess they find them, just not the ones they wanted.

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