Making little, Japanese boys scary since 2002.
Released: 2002
Genre(s): Horror, Thriller
Some of you may not know this, but two years before Sarah Michelle Gellar ventured into a Japanese haunted house and battled the spooks inside in "The Grudge," the Japanese version of the movie "Ju-on: The Grudge" was released, and made people incredibly uncomfortable about dead, Japanese women who slithered on the ground while croaking. While not as jump-scare-happy as its American counterpart, "Ju-on: The Grudge" manages to effectively produce a significantly creepy ghost story through the most fundamental of means: dark rooms and corridors, weird sound effects, and the inability to escape any of it. Perhaps the most impressive feat of all is the complete lack of gore - a feat seldom accomplished in this day and age of gimmicky splatterfests (and to be honest, I think people who watch horror only for the gore are complete morons). However, the techniques employed in this film would be so much more effective if the pacing of it was not quite as disjointed: the movie is broken up into multiple "chapters" or "episodes" centering around each character. However, this relieves any of the building tension that the previous chapter had been working to establish, effectively starting the whole process over, instead of letting the fright build to a truly terrifying head. Those who are used to watching mainly American horror-style movies may find this bothersome, and even those who are fans of foreign horror may disapprove of this layout. Regardless, "Ju-on: The Grudge" is an effective chiller, and something that can easily be enjoyed with the lights off and the volume cranked.
Rating (out of 5): 3
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