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This was a super flick that was as creepy as hell. Imagine a house cursed by
the anger of those who wrongly died whilst living in there. It's hard to get
into the story line without giving stuff away but for those who have enjoyed
my reviews in the past you are just going to have to take my word for it. I'll
cover what I can but will not wreck anything for you.
By
the time that some horror fans get around to this movie, they will have
realised that once again Hollywood has decided to do their own version of a
Japanese horror film, in this case starring Sarah Michelle Gellar of Buffy
fame. Well this one is certainly not the Hollywood one. It's in your face
scary almost from start to finish with very little let up along the way.
Basically the story is this: there is a house that is full of anger from the
victims of a murder. They present themselves as ghastly ghouls that make the
most bone jarring noise when they make themselves visible, scaring those who
see them quite literally to death. The evil that is The Grudge is such that
once you enter the house, you take the curse with you if you are lucky enough
to leave alive!
The
film appears really disjointed at some points and it's been argued that for
the whole that it doesn't really make sense. However you need to take the time
to remember that all the different stories revolve around the house, they are
not truly interconnected in their own right. It's best to treat the house as
the story itself, the spirits in the story as a part of that and all the rest
as branches of the greater tale. Imagine if you will a whirlwind of tales
gradually spinning around to all fit together into this one really freaky
plot.
As
the movie progresses, the pace also picks up, along with the amount of frights
you seem to experience every few minutes. Wait until the final fifteen to
twenty minutes of the film to see what I mean. It's also in these last few
moments that you will also see why the Japanese are so good at scary movies.
Once again the Japanese show us that they know how to scare us senseless with
this great story. Co created by one of the writers of the Japanese (and
original) version of The Ring, Takahashi Hiroshi, one of the most disturbing
parts of this tale is that in what can be classed as a very different
approach, most of the really scary parts of the movie actually take place in
the light of day or well lit conditions, as opposed to your traditional horror
which normally relies on the dark and shadow. The Grudge thrusts the terror
into clear sight and revels in it!
I
highly recommend this title to all horror fans as a movie that is very
cleverly done with a good method of joining together different plot points in
order to create a cohesive tale that will keep you up at night. Guaranteed to
have you looking over your shoulder!
16:9 video, the actual
transfer itself does present with some problems however not enough to hurt
your enjoyment of the movie, there is a bit of grain present throughout and in
some of the final stages of the film there are problems with aliasing briefly
on a window ledge.
5.1 Japanese audio. The
audio on this title is what makes it even more frightening with the guttural
sounds of the spirits being one of the most disturbing I have heard in ages.
Add to that, the sound the young boy Toshio makes and you have a recipe for
some serious frights.
There is only a trailer on
this disc for other Eastern Eye titles. Worth the watch so you know what to
buy next.
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