THE
GRUDGE
With Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jason Behr, Clea Duvall, Bill Pullman, Ted
Raimi
Directed by Takashi Shimizu
With his Spider-Man success Sam Raimi hasn't forgotten his horror
roots. Here he produces Takashi Shimizu's English remake of his own
original Japanese film. With that same creeping horror style as Ringu
(also remade as The Ring), he milks the most chilling of scenes
with an hypnotic pace from the premise of a curse (JU-ON) befalling
all who encounter the angered spirit of someone who died in the grips
of an intense grudge, its slow, meticulous fury unstoppable. Gellar
is a caregiver in Tokyo who has to check in on a homebound patient whose
original nurse didn't seem to arrive for work. Slowly she gets sucked
into a disturbing black hole of an angered ghost who does not discriminate
between its victims, Shimizu's sequences, devices and techniques absolutely
effective in scaring the hell out of you. A spirit or ghost that rushes
at you with noise is not very terrifying for the viewer - a slow moving
horror with unstoppable intent (and a spine tingling low croaking moan)
is a total freak out! While modern and stylish, it seems to be the Japanese
who are re-educating the world on how to manage and unleash real scares.
While the apple pie demeanour of Sarah-Michele Gellar has seen her becoming
a commercial horror favourite (from the Buffy TV series to I
Know What You Did Last Summer), this time round she's part of something
with substance and true nail-biting terror. Pullman is great in the
small role, which has a huge narrative significance. If you love a good
scare, don't miss this one.
5 / B
- PB
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A - B - C
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