Stars: William Mapother, Clea Duvall, Jason Behr, Kadee Strickland, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Edison Chen, Amber Tamblyn, Jennifer Beals, Eve Gordon

Director: Takashi Shimizu

Summary: Features the terrifying horror films THE GRUDGE and THE GRUDGE 2.

Features the terrifying horror films THE GRUDGE and THE GRUDGE 2. A remake of the Japanese horror hit JU-ON, THE GRUDGE is helmed by its original director Takeshi Shimizu. Like its predecessor, this Hollywood version of the film takes place in Tokyo, but most of the main characters are American, including Karen (Sarah Michelle Gellar of BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER), a young social worker, and her peers. When Karen enters a seemingly abandoned home to look after a mentally disturbed resident, she soon discovers that there's an evil - and very aggressive - presence in the house, and it's lashing out at every person that sets foot inside. Having directed both the original JU-ON and its sequel in Japan, Shimizu was very familiar with his own tale of terror by the time he directed its 2004 incarnation. Using many of the key actors from the previous films (including Takako Fuji and Yuya Ozeki who have unforgettable roles), Shimizu recreates the story with the added advantage of a Hollywood budget (acquired with the help of producer Sam Raimi of SPIDER-MAN fame, who is also a noted horror-movie director). As with many Japanese horror films (particularly the original RING, which strongly influences this movie), THE GRUDGE relies on atmosphere over plot, resulting a series of utterly chilling moments that will leave viewers fascinated and unbelievably frightened. In THE GRUDGE 2, 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.

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The Grudge

It's not the scary hit that The Ring was in 2002, but The Grudge makes a similarly convincing case for American remakes of popular Japanese horror films. Barely a year passed between the release of Takashi Shimizu's creepy ghost story Ju-On: The Grudge and the production of this American remake, set in Tokyo and starring Sarah Michelle Gellar in her first post-Buffy horror film. About the only significant difference between the two films is the importing of a mostly-American cast (including Bill Pullman, Clea DuVall and Grace Zabriskie), but The Grudge was reconfigured (by screenwriter Stephen Susco) to allow Shimizu to refine and improve the spookiest highlights of his earlier version, which enjoyed previous incarnations as a short film and two made-for-Japanese-video features. Surprising box-office analysts with a $40 million opening weekend, The Grudge may disappoint hard-core horror fans because it lacks gore and graphic violence, but as a creepy tale about a very haunted house, it's guaranteed to send a few chills up your spine. --Jeff Shannon

The Grudge 2

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

Aspect Ratio:	16:9 Anamorphic Wide Screen
Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Cast And Crew Commentary, Under The Skin Featurette, The Birth Of The Grudge, The Grudge 2 Storyline Development, Deleted scenes, Additional footage, East Meets West featurette, Holding A Grudge - Kayako and Toshie featurette,
Release Date:	May 7, 2007
Runtime:	191 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	8249334
Keywords:	English, Grudge, Horror, Occult
Genre:	Horror/Occult