The Grudge 2
PG-13
2006
**1/2 out of ****

First off, I want to say that this was a sequel that was much better than the first installment. The Grudge was mostly laughable. I am mostly alone in thinking this - my friends who have watched this movie somehow managed to find parts of it creepy. That is not to say that I don’t like The Grudge because I do, very much, and am completely entertained whenever I watch it. I was expecting more off the same from the sequel, and was pleasantly surprised to find that it was actually less unintentionally humorous than the first one, almost unheard of for sequels to horror movies.

This time around, the movie follows three separate storylines - Sarah Michelle Gellar’s sister Aubrey, come to Tokyo to investigate Gellar’s death, an international private Tokyo high school student, and a family in Chicago. It’s obvious what the first two stories have to do with the ghosts featured in the Grudge, since both characters featured in those storylines enter the house (thus incurring the wrath of the disgruntled spirit) but the reasons behind the family in Chicago remains a mystery until the end. It’s actually a delightful twist (even if it doesn’t make all that much sense when you think about it).


There was good and bad about this movie. Plenty of bad, in fact (after all, it IS a sequel to the Grudge!!). The good: All three storylines were entertaining, and surprisingly enough, for the most part acting was fairly decent. There were a few ghost scenes that were genuinely chilling. Not scary - I honestly do not get scared when I watch horror movies - but nicely chilling. You definitely don’t get that with every ghost movie these days. I mean, come on, look at Pulse. That was ridiculous beginning to end. And I’ve already mentioned this, but the twist at the end was really cool, even though it doesn’t really stand up to scrutiny.


The bad: First and foremost was Ghost Overload. I’m not kidding - it felt like every two seconds you were seeing one of the ghosts. An overload like that takes away from the chill factor. You end up just thinking, “oh, there she is again…”. And I really think that the little boy ghost is really just in the game for kicks - he IS a little boy, and all he really does is sit in corners and sometimes make cat yowling noises. Why? Because he’s not a disgruntled spirit, he just gets a kick out of scaring people. Probably played lots of pranks when he was alive. The acting was mostly decent, like I said, but there were definitely a few people in that movie who need to go back to acting school. Again, I’ll bring up the twist at the end. Cool, but really, could have been better. It just doesn’t really make sense. After the initial, “SWEET!” moment you have when all is revealed, you start thinking “…wait a second….”.

And one more thing….



If the ghost is physical enough to grab you like this, why don’t you just punch her or something? Come on!