The Grudge 2 (2006)

Director: Takashi Shimizu

Writer: Stephen Susco, Takashi Shimizu

Tagline: What Was Once Trapped, Will Now Be Unleashed

Actors: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Amber Tamblyn, Arielle Kebbel, Teresa Palmer, Jennifer Beals, Matthew Knight, Shaun Sipos, Edison Chen

Runtime: 1h 48m

Category: Curse, Ghost, Revenge, Supernatural

Synopsis: Following the last few days of three separate sets of people, the curse is spreading. A group of three high-school girls go inside the house for a little initiation rite and end up bolting in a terrified panic. Now, Trish, Vanessa, and Miyuki are all being attacked by a ghostly figure of a woman. In the same apartment building as Trish, a husband and wife, and his two kids, move in down the hall. Strange things begin to happen as the husband becomes more and more distant. Even his daughter’s friend from further down the hall has been acting really weird. And then Aubrey, Karen’s sister, comes from the States to take her home. She meets Eason, a reporter who has been following these strange occurrences since the murder three years ago, and they do some digging into the background of the woman they have all been seeing. One by one people are going missing and it seems there is no way of stopping this horrible curse that has beset the city of Tokyo, Japan.

Review: I was very impressed with the continuation of the story. I loved where they went with it and how they projected the storyline. The concept of an inter-transferable curse is something that has never been done before, and the thought of it is scary as hell. Although I was surprised to see Shimizu take on five separate stories all at once; 1) the three high-school girls, 2) the new family in the apartment down the hall from Trish, 3) Aubrey and Eason, 4) Karen, and 5) the original story of the family that was murdered. I thought that the five intermingled very well and was very impressed with some of the continuations of the original story about the murdered woman (although it did nothing for the plot). Even though there was just as much story, if not more than the first movie, they did as I thought they should have done; they compensated heavy story with graphics.

The ghost interaction that was lacking in the first movie was very present in this one. I very much enjoyed the versatility of the ghost’s attacks, not to mention the animation. The graphics were well presented and well executed. The problem with some ghost movies like these is that they may have some absolutely wonderful presence, but terrible execution. If a ghost is scary as hell but has nothing scary to do, it loses execution. In contrast, if a ghost has no presence, it’s just a boring old ghost, but has top-notch execution then you’re moving into another genre; poltergeist. Fortunately, this movie had very well animated ghosts that were very menacing and had extremely memorable executions.

I was not terribly thrilled with some of the acting and the script was nothing to call home about. I think they spent a lot of time doing the story and the animation and just made a simple script. Though this is not unheard of, it is also not commonplace. But I think that the story overpowered the script, which worked in their favor, causing a nice blend of all related components. Not much gore to speak of, except for some blood here and there…which, in some stories, is not called for. This movie based itself on mostly shock value and terror (impending doom).

Rating: 19. This review took me quite a while to finish; with trying to capture, in one small paragraph, the essence of the story, and then describing enough to intrigue but not enough to give anything away (hopefully). I would have rated it higher but there were a few things that bothered me; although I loved the background of the murdered woman, it did nothing for the story. I thought they would have incorporated it somehow but it was just a little side story that didn’t really relate to anything. I would have liked to see something happen with it. Apart from that, and some of the acting, the movie was great. (19of25).