Amazon.co.uk Review
The Grudge 2 is a spooky installment in Takashi Shimizu's hardworking Ju-on/Grudge series of horror pictures. It doesn't carry the disorienting thrill of the very first Japanese Ju-on features, but it's a lot creepier than anybody could have expected. The story picks up from the end of the first Hollywood version of The Grudge, and has nothing to do with Ju-on 2, Shimizu's Japanese sequel. Sarah Michelle Gellar returns (a distinctly supporting role) as an American woman traumatized by her experiences with a haunted house in Tokyo; younger sister Amber Tamblyn flies over to help out. This particular storyline doesn't have much meat on it; the murder house is still there, and people who go inside have a disconcerting habit of dropping dead. Fortunately, two other plots thread into the basic one: a group of American schoolgirls in Tokyo become intrigued by the legend of the house, and some Chicago apartment dwellers are unsettled by domestic anxiety and the weird sounds coming from next door. (This storyline, featuring Jennifer Beals, gives the film its extremely satisfying opening sequence.)
As usual with these movies, sequences come to us in non-chronological order, and it's up to us to piece it together. You can guess where the film is going, but the slow trajectory toward its final sequences is surprisingly involving. The movie was widely panned upon its release, which says more about the presumption of the law of diminishing sequel returns than the film itself--it's a decent little horror flick. --Robert Horton
Customer Reviews:
A HIGHLY IMPRESSIVE SEQUEL.......2007-10-25
Getting off of school, teenager Allison, (Arielle Kebbel) decides to go with high-school friends Vanessa, (Teresa Palmer) and Miyuki, (Misako Uno) when they decide to visit a supposedly cursed house nearby. At the same time in California, Aubrey Davis, (Amber Tamblyn) learns that her sister Karen, (Sarah Michelle Gellar) has been injured in Japan and flies out to see her. When she dies soon afterward in a freak accident, she becomes even more suspicious. Deciding to investigate the incident, she finds what her sister had found about the curse the house had. As the three students are terrorized and killed off one-by-one, she tries to do more detective work and is able to find the cause of the curse. Determined to end it before it gets any further, she tries to end it once and for all.
The Good News: This here wasn't that bad at all. Whenever this one was focused on the ghosts or the haunting, this is great fun and one of the better versions around of this type. This has some of the best ghost gags ever, and nearly each one of them is worthy of causing a jump or even some great feelings of suspense. From appearing behind virtually everything in the set to the manifestations that occur from out of nowhere to the hallucinations or visions that no one else sees, this manages to include a large amount of ghostly activity that make for some incredible shock scenes. There's really no real top scare, there's so many of them here that are a lot of fun. Practically anything in the first-introduced storyline are just plain superb, with special mention of the absolutely chilling meeting between the young survivor and the nonbeliever which turns into one of the greatest gags possible that really sends shivers down the spine. The bathroom encounter is really good and creepy, while the hospital hallway chase is chilling. The sudden shock appearances are chilling. The later ones do just as much with just as great a chill, leaving this one incredibly solid throughout when it comes with it's ghostly happenings. The special thing about this is that there's so many of them due to it's longer running time and more opportunities to allow such things to go on. That helps out tremendously. The other factor that works is that this one really does have a great conclusion. With the three subplots going on that rarely have anything at all to do with each other, this one here manages to include a great conclusion that wraps up all three at once and keeps the interest there. A really nice addition, and one to a really decent film.
The Bad News: There's not a whole lot wrong with this one. One of the biggest problems is the triple subplots going on. Each one could've been a solid film themselves, yet adding them together ruins the other ones. It takes the time away to develop anything of importance beyond some visual gags. Only one of them means much of anything in terms of discovering anything about the plot's mysteries. That means that the other two are there for shock effect, and it really takes a toll when it constantly switches around to one of the others right when something interesting has been built up in the investigation. That's when having so many different subplots in a film is a weakness, when it must sacrifice the more interesting and needed subplot to delve time into the others, when the one that needs the most amount of time on-screen should be getting the higher priority. Even worse in this case is that one of them serves no purpose other than as a gag at the end which isn't even needed at all and takes up time. There's nothing necessary about it being there and it means nothing to the film if it would've been dropped out. These flaws lower this one slightly.
The Final Verdict: This here wasn't that bad when it decided to focus on the haunting side while everything else resulted in headaches. Fans of the particular genre, the Japanese remake trend or the first one should give this one a try, while those looking for more extreme fare or less clichés should heed caution.
FANTASTIC!.......2007-10-19
Now this film is better than,
the ring 1&2 japonise, the ring 1&2 remake
The Grudge 1&2 japonise and the grudge remake,
it trashes most films
and has chilling and
very twisted moments.
Beats all psycological
horror!
***** 5 STAR
Pointless movie.......2007-09-18
This movie is pointless. Its not particurlarly scary and there is no ending. If they are making The Grudge 3 which I believe they are then they could have skipped from the end of the first film straight into the third one. The whole film was just a cheap cash in on the first one.
Why do all these people keep going into the house anyway??? Sarah Michelle Gellar is a cr*p actress. Thank god she gets her head split open after half an hour!
The grudge 2.......2007-09-02
Aubrey attempts to figure out the mystery behind the strange goings-on related to a house that has hospitalised her sister. She teams up with a journalist and the pair embark on a trip to the Japanese countryside, hoping to visit the mother of one of the house's original inhabitants.
Amazing acting form amber, the scaries film of 2006,
possibly even beats saw 3!
AWFUL.......2007-07-29
TERRIBLE MOVIE BORING, USED THE SAME SCARE TACTICS OVER AND OVER SO IT BECAME COMICAL AND MONOTONOUS
Customer Reviews:
...............2007-07-14
the first movie was pretty creepy
it spooked me good, then i saw the spoof and could finally laugh at myself for getting own3d
but then this.
for a minute i was lead to believe there'd be light. that was invigorating,
most horrors are just uncontrollably scary, you can't do anything if you're caught up in it, just accept the inevitable
with this i thought i'd be able to put the matter to rest, to be rewarded with rainbows
it didn't happen
so, you're lulled into a false sense of security, things start to make sense and the whole thing has a greater meaning, then.. b1t*hslapped back to reality
was it a clever twist, i think not
i was ready to applaud it and nestle both installments on my *classics* shelf, but after the flip-side, i was left grizzling
if you like pointlessness, you'll no doubt love it
but for me, if something happens and it effects an area, fair enough. with this second movie it's as tho the evil disregards the laws of physiques and is free to do whatever, at will
wrong imho
what happened to causality?
exactly.
summed up:
it's aiight but then it actually doesn't make sense.
UK DVD:
- Grudge, The
- Halloween 4
- Halloween II [1981]
- Haunting, The [1999]
- Hellraiser 1-3 [4-disc Box Set] [1987]
- Hollow Man [2000]
- How the West Was Won [1962] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
- In the Mouth of Madness [1995] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
- I Spit On Your Grave [1978]
- Ju-On - The Grudge [2003]
UK DVD List
UK DVD
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