The Grudge film review

certificate_15

THE GRUDGE

Strip away The Grudge's abundance of formulaic horror clichés: the eerie music, the moody lighting, the opening of creaking doors and the looks of terror and you're left with very little in the way of originality. Certainly the premise of a haunted house is the ultimate cliché. Also scary are the performances, particularly that of Sarah Michelle Gellar whose depth of acting is plucked straight from the actors' elementary guide to facial expressions.

In horror films the slow pace is a deliberate device to sustain tension. It is also, here, a means of spinning out a flimsy plot. Although little happens in The Grudge, it still manages to take a long time to occur. The Grudge is a remake of last year's Japanese film Ju-on:The Grudge, written and directed by Takashi Shimizu. Shimizu also directed this Hollywood version, though its roots can be traced back to any number of films in the same genre.

The imagination is always more effective than anything created on a computer or in a props department. It's certainly a factor the director is well aware of as most of the chills generated by The Grudge come via suggestion and vague images rather than anything explicit. But even these are too familiar and uninspired to invoke much in the way of fear.

Although the film has been remade for an American audience, its location remains Tokyo where Kare Davis (Sarah Michelle Gellar) has gone to join her boyfriend Doug (Jason Behr). She takes a job at a care center and when a colleague fails to report in to work, Kare is sent to the home of an elderly psychotic woman, Susan (KaDe Strickland), to cover for her missing workmate.

The primary reason for the film being set in Japan is that within the culture it is believed when a person dies in extreme sorrow or rage, the manner of that death remains in the house and is passed on. With shadowy images creeping about, a mysterious young boy and a demonic black cat, Kare soon discovers that Susan isn't the only thing about the house that's disturbed. During her efforts to find out more about the property's history she uncovers a link to the suicidal death of an American professor (Bill Pullman).