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FILM DETAILS

Certificate 15

Cast Sarah Michelle Gellar Amber Tamblyn Matthew Knight .

Directors Takashi Shimizu.

Screenwriters Stephen Susco.

Running Time 102 minutes

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The Grudge 2
The sequel to the Sarah Michelle Gellar shocker.

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Plot
With Karen (Gellar) a hospitalised murder suspect in Tokyo after previous events, her sister Aubrey (Tamblyn) flies to her bedside and promptly visits the haunted house with journalist Eason (Chen) to get cursed. Meanwhile in Chicago a happy family fly off the handle. Oh God! It’s spreading!

Review

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Writer-director Takashi Shimuzi’s sequel to the American remake of his own Ju-on/Grudge saga is actually his seventh Grudge film. How he manages to stay awake directing them at this stage is his problem. But it’s beginning to feel like everyone watching these flicks is under an inescapable curse. If you’ve seen any of them, Grudge 2 is a repetitive blur of interchangeable characters who get their doom on and hallucinate scenes of the family massacre that kicked the whole thing off. They see dead people and die, some faster than others. Just as nitwit girls in ‘70s horrors would tremulously ask the house / words, “Who’s there?”, people here keep being told if they go into //that// house they’ll die, so their immediate response is, “I have to go there!”

Sarah Michelle Gellar checks out of this quickly so she could go off to another horror movie, bless, but the baffling extended cameo prize goes to Jennifer Beals. In the obligatory post-Scream pre-credits snuff sequence Beals brains her bellyaching husband with the breakfast skillet (ripped off from Six Feet Under, much?). Then later we see her moving in all smoochy with him, because hey! We’re going back and forth in time as well as space. This is the new twist on the premise. Torching the Tokyo crib didn’t get rid of that little dead kid with the panda eye make-up and the dead cat. No, the curse born of death in the grip of rage is like an infectious virus, so one of the victim girlies can carry it to America. Well okaaaay then.

Shimuzi’s American producers (who include Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert) have obviously given him and his Yankee scripter the Hollywood Horror check list, and he ticks off the items carefully. Girl appears in a cheerleader outfit for no apparent reason – check. Girl gets menaced in the shower, check. Girl in bed //thinks// it’s her boyfriend with her under the covers, only for him to appear in the bathroom, check. Person gets chased up to the roof (because that’s always the smartest place to run) only to plunge off it, check. There’s even the optional extra exorcist, although she has to see dead people and die. But the most frightening thing is that, at the ‘end’, you realise this can, and will, go on and on....

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Average user rating for The Grudge 2

Not Scary! Not even once... Do not EVER pay money to see this crap-cake! The leads are anemic, the story so thin that your telly will breake if you cough and the director obiusly could'nt get his tallent through the american custums... Sam Raimi should be ashamed of himself for producing the shit!!! ... More

Posted by larstrygve at 17:57, 05 April 2008 | Report This Post

Would rather be Angie!

When i saw this film i tried to make it as scary as possible. I watched it at night, i sat in my bed, and had my pussy of a friend on the floor covering his eyes through the whole movie but i sat there with dull excitement and expectations for the next scare. And having seen the originals (Ju-on and Ju-on 2) it gave it an even bigger plunge back into the box and back to Blockbusters. Thus i would rather be Angie than watch this movie again! ... More

Posted by Hazerdaz at 13:04, 12 July 2007 | Report This Post

Meh

I'll give it two stars purely for the schoolgirls and one admittedly creepy bit at the school office, but there's nothing new or even particularly scary. Asian kids in mascara ain't scary. Neither is a long extended burp. ... More

Posted by Caster at 13:24, 24 June 2007 | Report This Post

RE: The Grudge 2

This movie is not too scary. But London to Brighton really make me thrilled. ... More

Posted by phoebekate at 02:03, 13 December 2006 | Report This Post

RE: The Grudge 2

Ok, I'll start off by saying that I did enjoy this film, but I left the cinema feeling as though there should have been more scares in there, that said, I thought the scenes where the little boy was just sitting there staring at the characters and making that horrible cat screaming noise freaked me out!   I thought it was a worthy sequel, I just wish the back story had been explored a bit more. Ah well, I'm sure there will be more explained in The Grudge 3.     ... More

Posted by FreddyMyers at 10:06, 08 November 2006 | Report This Post

The Grudge 2

The first Grudge was a revelation,a remake of a non-English language horror movie that was almost as good. More importantly,it was geniunely frightening,with a truly eerie atmosphere,some terrific 'jumps' and much that was just chilling. The blob on the video monitor,the ghost under the bed and the ghost in the loft were perhaps the high points in a truly scary film. The sequel's main problem is that it can't even begin to be as scary as the original,partly because it surprised everyone ho... More

Posted by Dr Lenera at 22:14, 23 October 2006 | Report This Post

Possibly one of the most disappointing sequels of all time, squandering all the good work of the first film in favour of cheap shock tactics. The original American remake somehow managed to pull off some convincing scares, but this shoddy follow-up only manages to make itself look ridiculous. Grey ghost face coming out of photography developing tray? Ludicrous. After the first film I'll admit it took me a few days to sleep properly again, such was it's creep-out factor, but Grudge 2 shouldn't wo... More

Posted by jotaylor at 20:49, 23 October 2006 | Report This Post

Better than the first

After leaving the theater watching this film i was quite suprised. I never expected the film to be that scary- lots of jumpy scenes in this film. And one rely freaky scene including a developing tray - just having the woman staring at you would scrae the shit out of me. Overall i rely liked this film alot. ... More

Posted by deej_563 at 10:09, 22 October 2006 | Report This Post

A quite good sequel with a reasoanble premise, not that scary however what is these days. See it just don't expect the earth to move. ... More

Posted by bittersweet at 16:41, 21 October 2006 | Report This Post

Yet to See...

I haven't seen The Grudge 2 yet, but I do take issue with the above review nonetheless. My main concern is Angie says that the whole moving-through-space-and-time thing is a new twist to the premise, when it isn't. The first US remake had a similar idea and jumped back and forth. The original Ju-On films always did it, so it's not really new. I'll withhold actual judgement until I've seen the film, though! ... More

Posted by Movie Mogul at 10:46, 21 October 2006 | Report This Post

I thought "The Grudge 2" was a ok enough sequal....but as soon as Sarah Michelle Gellar got killed off it goes downhill. Oh well....off to buy the special edition of the first film. ... More

Posted by smp31 at 14:23, 17 October 2006 | Report This Post

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