The Grudge 2 film review

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THE GRUDGE 2

Spinning out a flimsy idea into a movie is one thing, but dragging it out to a sequel is simply mercenary. Even before the mild success of 2004's The Grudge, which itself was a remake of director Takashi Shimizu's Japanese film Ju-on: The Grudge, its ending left no doubt there would be a sequel. Taking the most rudimentary of horror plots, namely a haunted house, The Grudge 2 loosely picks up where the first film left off. But what little novel value sustained the first is lost here in this repetitive exercise in futility.

The central premise behind the Grudge films is that in Japanese lore, when a person dies in a state of rage, that torment remains to haunt the house and all those who enter. The house in question here is in Tokyo and the shadowy figures of a pale-faced, black-haired young boy and his mother who both died there curse all those whose stupidity and morbid curiosity possess them to visit.

The Grudge 2 deals with three separate stories of those affected by the curse. There's Aubrey Davis (Amber Tamblyn), who's in Tokyo to take home her sister Karen (Sarah Michelle-Gellar) who had barely survived her trip to the house - which was the subject of the first film. There are three teenage schoolgirls whose visit to the house for a prank goes frighteningly wrong. Then there's a family in Chicago who inexplicably find themselves victims.

How all three plots connect is unclear, as is much of what's going on. Ghostly and shadowy images of the young boy and his mother appear intermittently to raise the pulse, but the vague plot provides little to sustain interest in the intervening periods. The thoroughly bland characters rely more on expressions than words. Which is a good thing when the words are the clichéd, "I've got no choice but to go back to that house." The question of why is the obvious one, but one that is rarely answered.

"This is not about a house, it's about rage," one insightful character explains. If that's the case, then perhaps someone should have told the writer. In actual fact, it's not about rage, it's about making money.

Kevin Murphy