There's a certain breed of people who enjoy getting scared. Mind you, that's slightly different from being scared, which often connotes a real-life situation that has potentially bad consequences for the person experiencing that emotion. Instead, I'm referring to people who enjoy the adrenaline rush of prefabricated and controlled situations designed to elicit good-natured fright.
They're the ones who automatically head toward haunted house attractions set up around Halloween. Those places don't really possess any sort of story -- beyond the "house" or other locale being haunted by some sort of monster or otherworldly being -- but do contain one scare after another based on things that go bump (or jump out at you) in the dark.
Naturally, those people also seek out horror films for the same emotional response, namely a collective audience shriek followed by laughter over having been "had" by the fright purveyors. Accordingly, such adrenaline junkies will likely eat up "The Grudge," a scare fest designed around the oldest genre staple in the book, the haunted house.
A remake of the more minimalist and abstract Japanese film, "Ju-on: The Grudge," the notable thing about it is that its original director, Takashi Shimizu, has returned to helm this new version. The story is basically the same. A home is filled with evil tidings due to powerful emotions being unleashed during violent deaths, and anyone who enters is subject to being haunted there or anywhere else by any number of available scares.
This version however, with its accompanying Hollywood-sized budget, is slicker than the original, the effects are better and it possesses a name actress in the form of Sarah Michelle Gellar who's no stranger to the genre after slaying vampires when not knowing what someone did last summer.
There's no denying that the film contains some truly creepy, spooky and yes, scary moments. Shimizu, who works from newcomer Stephen Susco's adaptation of the original film, certainly knows how to set up and then deliver the scares with the best of them. If viewed on just that level, the film works decently. Unfortunately, there's the pesky notion of plot and characters that simply won't go away and haunts the film from start to finish.
To have a great horror flick rather than just a competent one, you need an interesting story and, more importantly, interesting and/or engaging characters that you'll care about. The story here is about as barebones as they come. Simply put, people enter the haunted house and encounter spooky stuff there or elsewhere, with us as the ghoulish spectators.
The mystery, of course, relates to who or what is haunting the house and why. If you've ever seen a horror film, such as fellow Japanese to American flick "The Ring" (where a videotape rather than the house dooms the characters to being hunted and haunted down before being killed), it isn't that difficult to figure things out.
Shimizu tries to shake things up a bit by telling his tale in a non-linear fashion with the story jumping around through time to deliver the explanation bit by bit. Unfortunately and despite that gambit that's worked for other such releases, the revelation and paths getting to it simply aren't that interesting and clearly aren't anywhere near novel.
Despite indications that would seemingly suggest otherwise, there's no big shocking development at the end (such as occurred with "The Others"). And there are too many holes, implausibleness and general stupidity on the part of the characters (things the "Scream" and "Scary Movie" films spoofed) to allow yourself to be drawn into all of the fright.
I've always said that the scariest and spookiest films are those that allow the viewer's mind to do as much directing as the filmmaker rather than having one obvious scare after another being thrown in your face as occurs here. Those that feature interesting characters who behave in realistic style behavior also work better as viewers then have a vested emotional tie to the proceedings.
Here, and as is the case in most such films, the characters are simply fodder for the great big scare machine. They go into the house (or are introduced as having already done so) and then are obvious but interchangeable targets for the ensuing horror chills and thrills.
And in doing so, Shimizu trots out about every haunted house trick and cliché known to filmmakers, albeit sometimes with rather effective results. Had we cared about those starring down the wrong end of the horror barrel, however, the effect would have been so much more powerful and would likely stick with viewers long after seeing the film as compared to the likely minimal, post-film aftereffects of this offering.
With little to no character depth and certainly no development, the likes of Gellar ("Cruel Intentions," the "Scooby Doo" films), Bill Pullman ("Igby Goes Down," "Independence Day"), Jason Behr ("The Shipping News," "Pleasantville") and Clea Duvall ("21 Grams," "Identity") can't do much with their characters other than look concerned or scared. Ryo Ishibashi ("Aiki," "Brother") is present as a local detective who's working the various deaths and disappearances (and seems to have a theory about the house and its curse), but not enough is made of that to make that subplot work or even be that interesting.
Of course, all of those objections will be moot for viewers who simply want some cheap if occasionally rather effective, haunted house thrills and chills. I have to admit that some of the moments were quite spooky and creepy.
Those with low tolerance levels for such scary mayhem likely won't make it through the film without raising their knees to their chests, covering their eyes or simply fleeing the experience. I never got to that point, but may have had some more effort been put into making the story more interesting and its characters more believable and sympathetic. "The Grudge" rates as a 5 out of 10.
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